Australian distributors Palace Films have cryptically revealed that they “just heard about a MAJOR Oz director presenting their new film @ Telluride” with all signs pointing to the feature in question being Peter Weir’s prison-escape epic “The Way Back.”
With the film now scheduled for a limited Oscar-qualifying release this December before going wide on January 21st, a festival appearance certainly seems likely and, with no other Australian directors who’d be considered “major” having films on the cusp of release, Weir’s pic does seem be the main suspect.
Telluride is renowned for its surprise screenings which, in past years, have included the likes of Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” and Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air” — “The Way Back” would certainly continue the trend of big-name features.
Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Mark Strong and Saoirse Ronan, the film centers on a group of seven prisoners who escape a Siberian labor camp in 1940 and attempt to trek thousands of miles across hostile terrain to India and their freedom.
The Telluride Film Festival runs from September 3-6.