Today I have a couple of new release dates to share along with some distribution pickups. We’ll start with The Whistleblower, a true story adaptation featuring Rachel Weisz as police officer turned peacekeeper, Kathryn Bolkovac, who uncovers a disturbing sex-trafficking underworld in Bosnia and its shocking connection to the UN. I actually saw this film at the Toronto International Film Festival and wasn’t exactly enamored with the film as much as I was moved by Weisz’s performance. You can read my full review right here and look for the film next August as Samuel Goldwyn Films has picked it up for distribution.
In another just-announced distribution deal, FilmDistrict has picked up James Mather and Stephen St. Leger’s Lockout starring Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare and Tom Hollander. The film is a sci-fi action adventure piece set in the near future following a falsely convicted ex-government agent (Pearce), whose one chance at obtaining freedom lies in the dangerous mission of rescuing the President’s daughter (Grace) from rioting convicts at an outer space maximum security prison. The film is expected to hit theaters early 2012.
Next we come to a pair of new release dates for Jim Sheridan’s Dream House, which was delayed due to reshoots that coincided with Daniel Craig’s filming duties on David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake and Kelly Reichardt’s festival favorite Meek’s Cutoff.
Just below I have detailed each film with cast, synopsis and other films releasing on or around the same time.
Title: Dream House
Release Date: September 30, 2011
Films Releasing Around Same Time: Anonymous (9/23), Real Steel (10/7) and Wanderlust (10/7)
Director: Jim Sheridan
Cast: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz
Storyline: Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts star in Dream House, a suspense thriller about a family that unknowingly moves into a home where several grisly murders were committed…only to find themselves the killer’s next target. Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a job in New York City to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived. When Will investigates the tragedy, his only lead comes from Ann Paterson (Watts), a neighbor who was close to the family that died. As Will and Ann piece together the disturbing puzzle, they discover that the story of the last man to leave Will’s dream house will be just as horrifying to the one who came next.
Title: Meek’s Cutoff
Release Date: April 8, 2011
Films Releasing the Same Day: Hanna, Rio and Your Highness
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson
Storyline: The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in one another’s instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as a natural born enemy.
