Netflix announced release dates for several of their upcoming feature film projects such as Adam Sandler‘s already-reviled The Ridiculous Six arriving on Dec. 11, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday arriving Mar. 2016 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend arriving first quarter 2016. However, the most interesting of the lot is Cary Fukunaga‘s new film Beasts of No Nation starring Idris Elba.
Netflix acquired Beasts already refusing to screen the film if the studio planned on releasing online at the same time, but in order to secure Oscar consideration a film must be released in theaters in Los Angeles and in deed that will be the case for Beasts.
Netflix has teamed with Bleeker Street for a theatrical release that will be day-and-date with the streaming release on Oct. 16 with a Toronto Film Festival premiere all but guaranteed at this point. And yes, I have confirmed with TheWrap.com’s Oscar guru, Steve Pond, that as long as a film is released on or before the same date it’s available online it is eligible for Oscar consideration.
As for the film itself, it serves as Fukunaga’s first outing since directing the first season of HBO’s “True Detective” and it stars Idris Elba in a drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country. Elba plays the commander of a guerilla force and begins a process of dehumanizing the boy as he becomes a soldier.
With the Oct. 16 release date the film will be hitting limited theaters alongside the wide release of Steven Spielberg‘s Bridge of Spies and Guillermo del Toro‘s Crimson Peak.
