Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment have acquired U.S. rights to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful, which world premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where star Javier Bardem captured the Best Actor Award for his tour de force performance of a conflicted man struggling to reconcile fatherhood, family, love, remorse, spirituality, crime, seduction, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona.
Biutiful will have its North American bow at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. The domestic deal was announced jointly by Howard Cohen, Co-President of Roadside Attractions and Mickey Liddell of Liddell Entertainment. Roadside Attractions plans a December, 2010 release.
Biutiful is a classic tragedy set in modern times, based on a story by González Iñárritu and written by him, Armando Bo and Nicolás Giacobone. The film stars Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and newcomers Marciel Alvarez and Diaryatou Daff. Producers are González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik and Fernando Bovaira; Executive producer is David Linde; associate producers are Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo Del Toro; co-producers are Sandra Hermida and Ann Ruark. Music by Academy Award winner Gustavo Santaolalla; Edited by Academy Award winner Stephen Mirrione; Production design by Academy Award winner Brigitte Broch; Director of Photography is Academy Award nominee Rodrigo Prieto.
“‘Biutiful’ joins the growing pantheon of tremendous, groundbreaking work by Alejandro González Iñárritu,” said Cohen. “It’s a deeply felt film, guaranteed to rock audiences to their core, and that’s due to the amazing reciprocity between filmmaker and actor. Alejandro and Javier are two halves of the same whole.”
Liddell added, “‘Biutiful’ pairs the decade’s most exciting director with its most talented actor. Simply hearing Alejandro’s and Javier’s names in the same sentence excited me seeing the result of their collaboration on screen blew me away.”
