Whit Stillman‘s first film in a staggering thirteen years has found a familiar home. Sony Pictures Classics has announced that it has picked up the worldwide rights to the filmmaker’s next release,”Violet Wister’s Damsels In Distress” (formerly known simply as “Damsels In Distress“).
Starring Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody and Analeigh Tipton, the story was previously described as “a group of style-obsessed college girls who take in a new student and teach her their misguided ways of helping people” and they are “convinced that musical dance, sharp clothes and good hygiene — the Dior perfume ‘Diorissimo’ is their trademark — can all contribute to staving off the inevitable self-destructive impulses that follow hard on the heels of failed college romances.” And while that sounds kind of bonkers, the new official synopsis makes it a lot more clear:
Violet Wister’s DAMSELS IN DISTRESS is a comedy that follows a trio of beautiful girls who set out to revolutionize life at a grungy East Coast university – the dynamic leader Violet Wister (Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore). They welcome transfer student Lily (Tipton) into their group which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good scent and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men –including slick Charlie (Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker) and the mad frat pack of Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen)—who threaten the girls’ friendship and sanity.
There is no release date set just yet, but Gerwig recently said the film would hit in the fall. And that makes sense as Sony Pictures Classics will be busy at Cannes repping Woody Allen‘s “Midnight In Paris” and likely Gus Van Sant‘s “Restless.” So a TIFF premiere? If we were betting men, we’d put our money on it.
