Walt Disney Co. has removed the upcoming erotic thriller, Deep Water, from its release schedule for the calendar year 2022. Deep Water is based on a 1957 novel of the same name, written by Patricia Highsmith. Deep Water is directed by Adrian Lyne, who returns to directing after two decades since he last directed the 2002 thriller, Unfaithful. The film, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas in the lead was earlier slated to release on January 14, 2022.

There isn’t any official statement from the studio nor any reason to justify the delay for Deep Water which has earlier seen numerous delays in production due to the pandemic. The film made several headlines as it marks the return of filmmaker Adrian Lyne to filmmaking, though he wrote Alex Pettyfer’s Black Roads back in 2018. Lyne is famous for helming the 1987 film Fatal Attraction which earned him an Academy Award for Best Director.

This isn’t the first delay in the release of Deep Water. The film was earlier supposed to release November 13, 2020, but was delayed to August 2021 due to the pandemic-caused theater shutdowns. It was later pushed to the said January 2022 date until it was recently pulled from release. Deep Water first went into the planning stage in 2013, and Adrian Lyne was soon attached to the project as the director under Fox 2000 Pictures. It was after the film got into production hell when it was being helmed by Mike Nichols. The film’s rights then went to New Regency, which was ultimately occupied by Disney under its acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

Deep Water is a long-awaited project which stars two of the most well-acclaimed actors, with both Affleck and de Armas looking forward to several other projects. While de Armas just marked a hit with No Time To Die, Ben Affleck has The Flash (2022) coming in hot, as well as George Clooney-directed The Tender Bar. Deep Water also stars Tracy Letts, Rachel Blanchard, Lil Rel Howery, Jacob Elrodi, and Fin Wittrock.

Deep Water follows a married couple, held together only due to a strange arrangement between the two; however, when that goes awry, they begin to play mind games against each other, causing others around them to die mysteriously. Deep Water is written by Sam Levinson, who created the Emmy Award-winning show Euphoria, and also wrote and directed films like Assassination Nation (2018) and Malcolm & Marie (2021). Also co-writing the film is Zach Helm.

There is nothing on the next official release date as of yet but it’s still a highly anticipated film of the coming year given its Lyne’s comeback after a long time, a big motivation factor for critics and audience to catch the movie. Unfortunately, it’s unclear when the film will be rescheduled and we are going to keep an eye out for that. This news comes to us from The Wrap.