Sean Penn‘s war-torn-romance story “The Last Face” now has a North American distributor, as Saban Films acquired the movie’s distribution rights at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The film, which Penn directed, chronicles a love story between the director of an aid organization (Charlize Theron) and a doctor (Javier Bardem), which blossoms while the two are working in Liberia. They are not only living through extreme stress but are diametrically opposed in their opinions on how to stop the conflict.
“The Last Face” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, where it was viciously panned by numerous critics, who called it “ham-fisted,” “preachy” and “shoddily assembled.”
Erin Dignam wrote the screenplay for “The Last Face.”
The movie was produced by River Road Entertainment’s Bill Pohlad alongside FilmHaven Entertainment’s Matt Palmieri and Bill Gerber. Jon Kuyper served as executive producer. Saban Films President Bill Bromiley negotiated the deal with Ness Saban. CAA handled domestic rights and Lionsgate took care of foreign rights.
“The Last Face” is the first movie that Penn has directed since 2007’s “Into the Wild,” which was based on Jon Krakauer’s book chronicling Christopher McCandless’ ill-fated Alaskan adventure. That film snagged two nominations each for the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.