Major Deal Secured For THE GUARD at Sundance
After four days of negotiations and a bidding war, Sony Picture Classics has closed a major deal for US and Latin American rights to John Michael McDonagh's THE GUARD after the film received rave reviews from pundits following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.The film has now sold to almost every territory in the world. Securing a large US sale to such a major distributor has been the final coup for the film, which will be seen by international audiences throughout 2011.
THE GUARD is a thriller-comedy set on the west coast of Ireland where Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) is a small-town cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humour, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle) to his door.
The Irish short film SMALL CHANGE directed by Cathy Brady and the Irish-Scottish co-production PERFECT SENSE are also screening all week.
Element Distribution will release THE GUARD in Irish cinemas later this year.
ABOUT THE GUARD
The film is an Irish/UK co-production, backed by the IFB and international financiers. It's produced by Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo for Reprisal Films and Ed Guiney (Garage) and Andrew Lowe (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) for Element Pictures.
THE GUARD directed by John Michael McDonagh and starring Brendan Gleeson has garnered critical acclaim at the festival. According to Variety"... it's Gleeson who rightly owns the screen as a beer-swilling, crotch-grabbing, Derringer-firing crusader with one hell of a filthy mouth to go along with his heart of gold." and the director John Michael McDonagh's "filmmaking crackles with energy".