Warner Bros. Pictures is planning to re-release the award-winning crime drama The Departed on Friday, January 26, 2006, in more than 1,300 theatres nationwide. The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Departed originally opened domestically on October 6, 2006, taking the top spot at the box office in its first two weeks in release and receiving widespread critical acclaim. The film went on to earn $121 million at the domestic box office, making it Scorsese’s top-grossing film of all time. In addition, The Departed has brought in an estimated $125 million internationally.
Lauded by both critics and audiences, The Departed has had a strong presence during this year’s awards season. This morning it was honored with five Academy Award nominations, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director (Scorsese), Best Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan), Best Supporting Actor (Mark Wahlberg) and Best Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker). The film recently won the Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. Martin Scorsese also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Director and received his seventh Directors Guild of America Award nomination for his work on The Departed. Additionally, many of the nation’s top critics have included the film on their year-end ten-best lists, and a number of critics groups have recognized The Departed with awards, including the New York, Chicago, and Boston Film Critics and the National Board of Review, among others.
In making the announcement, Fellman stated, “We congratulate Martin Scorsese, as well as the producers, cast, and everyone who worked on ‘The Departed’ for all of the honors the film has already received. With awards season rekindling interest in the film, we thought it was the perfect time to put ‘The Departed’ back in theatres for moviegoers who hadn’t seen it, as well as for those who want to watch it again. Additionally, we want to make the film as accessible as possible to Academy members across the country so they have every opportunity to see it on the big screen the way it was meant to be seen.”
The Departed is set in South Boston where the Massachusetts State Police Department is waging an all-out war to take down the city’s top organized crime ring, run by powerful mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). A young rookie, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob run by Costello. While Billy is working to gain Costello’s trust, another young cop, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), is quickly rising through the ranks of the state police. Earning a spot in the Special Investigations Unit, Colin is among a handful of elite officers whose mission is to bring Costello down. But what his superiors don’t know is that Colin is working for Costello, keeping the crime boss one step ahead of the police. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operation he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin find themselves in constant danger of being caught — and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.
