Small time shingle Newmarket Films have been unveiled as the distributors of Peter Weir’s prison-escape-epic “The Way Back” with its previously revealed January 21st wide release now officially confirmed.
It’s not an altogether surprising move considering the film’s inability to find a home and the fact that Newmarket is owned by the Exclusive Media Group, who actually financed the picture under its Exclusive Films umbrella.
Does the move say anything about the film’s prospects though? In recent times, the company has acquired big name flops like “Agora” and “Creation,” and also picked up underwhelming Sundance film “Hesher” earlier this year — certainly a far cry from its work last decade with “Memento,” “The Prestige” and “The Passion Of The Christ.” That said, this year has already seen smaller shingles like Roadside Attractions step up with the acquisition of “Winter’s Bone” and “Biutiful.”
While Weir’s latest has been given a January release, producer Joni Levin has already noted that a limited Oscar-qualifying run in December is on the cards. The failure to mention anything about it in the announcement, however, seemingly suggests it’ll premiere at this year’s iteration of the Telluride Film Festival before any award season push will be confirmed. Many a film’s award-season prospects have been tried and tested at the event with Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” coming out of nowhere two years ago to sweep the Oscars and Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air” kicking off its campaign here last year.
Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Mark Strong and Saoirse Ronan, the epic follows 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. [ExclusiveMedia]
