Here is a juicy piece of news, apparently RADIUS-TWC (an upstart distribution company from The Weinstein Company) are looking to acquire the US distribution rights to ONLY GOD FORGIVES. The company that was started with Tom Quinn and Jason Janego are in negotiations to pick up the film, which is the next for DRIVE director Nicholas Winding-Refn and star Ryan Gosling.
The film negotiation is apparently in the range of $2.5 million minimum guarantee, sounds like hot property to me. This comes after DRIVE’s distributor FilmDistrict was meant to nab this one, but apparently there were differing opinions and the deal was never set. CBS Film is apparently another candidate for the rights, but it seems Radius is the one closing in.
Deadline’s synopsis for ONLY GOD FORGIVES: Gosling plays the son of a Florida-based crime syndicate boss (Kristin Scott Thomas – below), who is plying the drug trade in Thailand with his brother. When his addicted sibling gets involved in a murder and gets tangled up with a cop who calls himself the Angel of Vengeance, Gosling’s character, who is proficient in mixed martial arts, is compelled to seek revenge on behalf of his mother. There is swordplay, and a lot of slicing and dicing.
The film sounds pretty intense, and certainly this is one that will want to be picked up as soon as possible. After DRIVE, all the loyal fans such as myself shall be hanging out to see what comes next! Radius recently got the rights to Refn’s earlier film PUSHER to go forth with the US remake.