Fresh off a Best Director win at the Venice Film Festival, “The Brutalist” has landed at A24. In a competitive situation, A24 acquired U.S. distribution rights following the film’s buzzy debut at Venice. The deal closed just after the first industry screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The three-and-a-half-hour drama stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who emigrates to America in 1947. By embracing assimilation, he wins a contract that changes the course of his life… but at what cost?
In TheWrap’s positive review out of Venice, critic Ben Croll wrote, “Taken as a whole, ‘The Brutalist’ both mourns and celebrates American ambition – the ambitions of an immigrant class trying for a new life with no guarantee of success, and the ambitions of a filmmaker filling a canvas with a lifetime of obsessions.”
A24’s acquisition of the surefire awards contender comes in the wake of the studio’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” running the table at the Oscars last year.
Corbet, who co-wrote the film with Mona Fasvold, won the Silver Lion award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. The movie was shot in VistaVision and presented in 70mm at Venice and TIFF. The movie is also set to play the New York Film Festival.
“The Brutalist” is produced by Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon for Brookstreet U.K. alongside Brian Young and Kaplan Morrison’s Andrew Morrison. Also producing are Andrew Lauren for Andrew Lauren Productions and D.J. Gugenheim. Brookstreet U.K. is financing with Lip Sync Productions, Richmond Pictures, Meyohas Studio, Carte Blanche, Pierce Capital Entertainment and senior lender Cofiloisirs.
CAA Media Finance brokered the deal. Protagonist Pictures negotiated and sold international rights to Focus Features.
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