Oscilloscope Laboratories, the company forever to be known as the one Beastie Boy Adam Yauch co-owns, has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the Sundance 2010 film, “Howl.”
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (their narrative feature debut), the film stars James Franco as young, beat poet Allen Ginsberg and the film centers on the obscenity trial faced after the publication of his poem, Howl.
The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival mixes color, black and white and animated sequences to spin its true life story. The film left Utah with mixed reviews: Jeffrey Wells was blown away, calling the film “an indie, artsy, half-animated dream-cream movie that’s basically an instructional primer for the uninitiated about what a wonderfully seminal and influential work Howl was and is” while Roger Ebert was less than impressed saying that while it was “intensely interesting,” it was “rather flat, dispassionate, objective.”
Either way, we’re definitely intrigued to see how James Franco inhabits the legendary Allen Ginsburg and the supporting cast that includes Mary-Louise Parker, Jeff Daniels, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams and Aaron Tveit is pretty top notch. Not to mention that the immensely talented Carter Burwell composed the score.
We’ll see for ourselves when the film hits theaters and VOD on September 24, 2010.