The release schedule for the rest of the year is starting to shape up, but there are still a few question marks, and one of the films we're eager to get a date on is "Welcome To The Punch." The film is the sophomore feature from writer-director Eran Creevy, who made an impressive debut with "Shifty" a few years ago, and he's stepping up in a big way for his follow-up, an ambitious crime thriller, compared to "Heat" and "The Last Boy Scout," with a top-notch cast led by James McAvoy and Mark Strong.
The film was one of our most anticipated of the year, but word's been quiet on it for a while, bar an image that was released a few months back. And while an exact date is still a way off, we're a step closer, as according to Indiewire, IFC Films has acquired the rights for the film in the U.S, meaning that it has now been picked up in every territory in the world.
The film stars Strong as a gangster who returns to London from exile, giving a dogged cop (McAvoy) one last chance to nab him. The supporting cast is just as impressive as the leads, with Andrea Riseborough, David Morrissey and Peter Mullan among those on board, and we really enjoyed the script when we read it a while back; it's a gripping thriller with a lot more ambition and scope than similar British films, and Creevy certainly has the potential to pull it off. If we were betting men, we'd wager that it has a good chance of appearing at the Toronto or London Film Festivals later in the year, and we hope that a wider release date will be made known before then.