[Defiant]

SO how could they release the film so fast when they didn’t know when he would die.

Interesting point. TBD.

[Bigg Red]

I certainly know nothing about this sort of operation, so this is just a guess. News organizations keep files on obituary notices for famous people so that they will be ready when the person dies. Perhaps this movie deal is the same sort of thing. They knew he would be going sometime within the next year or so, so perhaps they set it all up in advance for a date not yet determined at the time of the contracts.