Durban-based Videovision Entertainment has scooped the distribution rights to The Road, Perrier’s Bounty and Harry Brown, the buzz films of the upcoming Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals.
Said Sanjeev Singh, Head of Acquisition and Distribution for Videovision Entertainment: “We are delighted to have acquired these three top films prior to their World Premieres and the Venice and Toronto festivals. They will be released in South Africa through United International Pictures early next year.”
Director John Hillcoat offers a hard-hitting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by American master Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men), The Road. The Man (Viggo Mortensen) wakes up one night and together with his wife (Charlize Theron) discovers the world is on the threshold of ruin. The audience witnesses the aftermath of a wholesale cataclysm, relayed with chilling realism. With food supplies dwindling and communities beginning to turn on each other, the Man sets out with his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a relentless journey of survival. Slumping across a barren United States, they contend daily with starvation, extreme weather and the pervasive threat of cannibalism. Through their occasional yet charged conversations and chance encounters with the odd fellow vagabonds (Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce), Hillcoat explores the meaning of their brutal and seemingly thankless quest. The Road will premiere in Toronto on 13 September.
With impeccable pacing, Perrier’s Bounty follows Michael (Cillian Murphy) during two whirlwind nights in the city. On the first night, he confronts his ailing dad (Jim Broadbent), takes a swing at Seamus at the pub, seeks a loan for his debts, burgles a home, participates in blackmail and is implicated in the accidental murder of one of the crime lord’s goons. For his deeds, a 10,000 euro bounty is placed upon the heads of him, Brenda (Jodie Whittaker) and Jim. The 24 hours that follow are a veritable game of cat and mouse, with a trail of mishaps and mayhem left across Dublin as Perrier’s (Brendan Gleeson) gang closes in. Michael’s fight to save his skin is complicated when he is forced to confront his emotions toward the eccentric Jim, who washes down coffee grounds with cold water, and Brenda, who is morose to the point of being suicidal after getting dumped by Seamus. Perrier’s Bounty is directed by the Dublin-born Ian FitzGibbon. The film premieres in Toronto on 11 September.
Daniel Barber, who directed the Academy Award-nominated short film The Tonto, makes his feature directorial debut with Harry Brown. The film focuses on Harry Brown (Michael Caine) who lives alone, shut away in one of Britain’s bleak public-housing apartment blocks. As his wife lives out her last days in the hospital, Harry restricts his activities to games of chess in the pub with Leonard, his last best friend. All around them swarms chaos. Their housing estate has been taken over by warring gangs that deal drugs and settle scores with impunity. The police, represented here by upright detective Frampton (Emily Mortimer) and her cynical partner Hicock (Charlie Creed-Miles), are reduced to simply informing the victims’ families when the latest shooting or knifing occurs – visits that Hicock calls “death-o-grams”. Harry Brown will premiere in Toronto on 12 September.
