Sony Pictures Classics has picked up David Michod’s Australian crime thriller “Animal Kingdom” which debuted at Sundance and eventually went on to take home the World Cinema Jury Prize.
The film stars the likes of Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver and James Frecheville and follows a 17 year old boy who is caught between his criminal family and a cop who thinks he can save him.
“There is nothing more exciting than the birth of a major filmmaker,” Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement. “David Michod is about as major as they come. Just when you think you have seen every conceivable angle on the gangster movie along comes a movie like ‘Animal Kingdom’ that is so fresh it feels like a reinvention of the genre. It is fresh, tough, entertaining. Audiences throughout America will love it.” No word yet on a release date.
Another Australian film making waves is Patrick Hughes’ genre-bending neo-Western-slash-cop-drama “Red Hill,” featuring Ryan Kwanten of ‘True Blood” fame.
The film co-stars Claire van der Boom, Steve Bisley and Tom E. Lewis and centers on a young policeman who moves into a one-horse town for peace and quiet only to discover that an escaped prisoner is forthcoming with vengeance on his mind.
Reviews coming out of Berlin have been mixed with strong criticism coming for a tightly-wounded but weak, cliched story though one thing all reports seemingly agree on is the film’s impressive visual flair. “Red Hill” has been picked up internationally but is yet to draw a stateside distributor.
