Jeremy Kay / Screen Daily
Soda Pictures has picked up from HanWay Films Canadian rights to the Western following its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the weekend.
The deal marks the third British film Soda has picked up for release in 2015 via its new Canadian platform that forms part of the wider film and television group Thunderbird Films.
First-time feature director John Maclean’s Western stars Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn and rising Australian talent Caren Pistorius.
Slow West takes place at the end of the 19th Century as a 16-year-old boy journeys across the American Frontier in search of the woman he loves, accompanied by a mysterious traveller and pursued by an outlaw.
Conor McCaughan of DMC Film produced alongside Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films and Rachel Gardner of Rachel Gardner Films.
Slow West is the first project to be produced through Michael Fassbender and McCaughan’s DMC Film.
Soda managing director Eve Gabereau brokered the deal with world sales agent HanWay’s managing director Thorsten Schumacher. As previously announced A24 holds US rights and Lionsgate will distribute in the UK.
“I am so happy to be involved in working with a new director and big talent, bringing a new perspective on a timeless genre to audiences in Canada,” said Gabereau. “I think all who see this film will be greatly moved and touched – and highly entertained.”