This news made it out too late to make my VOD Overdose column this week, but it’s way too cool to wait until the next column!
Drafthouse Films have acquired the U.S. distribution rights of I Declare War, which premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson (Lapeye also wrote the script), the film is about a group of neighborhood kids playing war, but what makes it so unique is that the audience views the action through the eyes of the kids. So instead of seeing kids holding sticks and saying “bang, bang bang!” we see them go all guns blazing into the fray. I think this is an excellent acquisition for Drafthouse because had it gotten a major release I’d imagine protest groups would go nuts — OH NO KIDS WITH GUNS! — but I think the concept demonstrates very well that kids can tell the difference between fiction and reality.
Check out the full press release and trailer below:
AUSTIN, TX – Wednesday, January 30, 2013 – Drafthouse Films, the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, announced their acquisition of US rights to 2012 Toronto International Film Festival favorite and Fantastic Fest Audience Award winner I Declare War, directed by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson. Produced by Lewin Webb, Robert Wilson and Patrick Cameron from SamaritanEntertainment, the film centers on an epic game of capture-the-flag. In their quest for victory, a group of adolescents pushes beyond the game and the boundaries of friendship into an adventure where fantasy blurs with reality. A VOD and theatrical campaign is planned for the second half of 2013.
Directors Lapeyre and Wilson set out to construct an action film from the darker side of a 13-year-old’s mindset, while also examining sincere conflicts of enduring friendship. Using the kids’ overactive imaginations, a neighborhood forest setting becomes a full-fledged woodland battlefield: sticks transform into guns, water balloons into grenades and eyeballs can shoot lasers. Charles Webb of MTV Geek has praised the film for “vividly capturing a point in time as a kid where everything was important, even the imaginary things.”
“Not since Stand By Me have we experienced such a poignant and sincere film about kids for adults,” says Drafthouse Films CEO/Founder Tim League, “Armed with an arsenal of extremely talented child actors and combining shades of Full Metal Jacket and Lord Of The Flies, Jason and Rob have created a one-of-a-kind action film that we couldn’t be more excited to handle in the US.”
Producer Lewin Webb noted, “We are thrilled that Drafthouse Films have picked up I Declare War and a wide US audience is going to have the opportunity to see it. We are proud to be part of the Drafthouse Family of films.”
“Drafthouse Films is our ideal partner for I Declare War in the US. From Fantastic Fest on, they have been a huge supporter,” says director Robert Wilson. “Drafthouse are the most progressive of US based distributors and we know that they will deliver the widest and best audience for the film.”
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