The Opening Night Film is an important choice for any festival, particularly amongst the handful on the major festival circuit – namely, Sundance, Venice, TIFF, SXSW, Cannes, LFF, and so on. With just over two months left on the clock, the BFI London Film Festival have announced that Paul Greengrass’ highly anticipated Captain Phillips has been chosen as the Opening Night Gala, kicking off the festival on 9th October at the Odeon Leicester Square.
The movie, which debuted its first trailer a few months back, will have its European premiere at the festival, having recently been set to open the New York Film Festival at the end of September as well.
Tom Hanks is front and centre on this true-story thriller, and smart money says that he’ll be an Oscar contender for Best Actor for the first time since his nomination in 2001 for Cast Away.
Columbia Pictures’ action-thriller Captain Phillips stars two-time Oscar® winner Tom Hanks in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
The film is directed by Oscar® nominee Paul Greengrass, from a screenplay by Billy Ray and based upon the book, A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca.
Greengrass is directing from a script penned by Billy Ray, who adapts the book, A Captain’s Duty, by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.
Last year, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie had the honour of opening the festival; the year before, it was Fernando Meirelles’ 360; and the year before that, Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Needless to say, the selection of a high-profile movie to open the festivities has not disappointed this year, either.
For those not heading out to LFF or NYFF, Captain Phillips will be released in the US on October 11th, a week ahead of its UK release date on 18th October.
The full line-up for the 57th BFI London Film Festival is set to be announced on Wednesday, 4th September. And if the Opening Night Film is anything to by, expect a very promising schedule.
London, 1 August, 2013: – The 57th BFI London Film Festival, in partnership with American Express, is delighted to announce that this year’s Opening Night will take place on Wednesday 9 October at the Odeon Leicester Square, with the European Premiere of Sony Pictures’ CAPTAIN PHILLIPS. It is directed by acclaimed Academy Award ® nominee Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Supremacy) and stars two- time Academy Award ® winner Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Philadelphia), both of whom are expected to attend the Festival.
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is director Paul Greengrass’s multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is – through Greengrass’s distinctive lens – simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama’s commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award® winner Tom Hanks), and his Somali counterpart, Muse (Barkhad Abdi). Set on an incontrovertible collision course off the coast of Somalia, both men will find themselves paying the human toll for economic forces outside of their control. The film is directed by Academy Award® nominee Paul Greengrass, from a screenplay by Billy Ray based upon the book, A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca. Sony Pictures release the film in UK cinemas on 18 October, 2013.
Clare Stewart, BFI Head of Exhibition and Festival Director comments: “We are thrilled to be opening the BFI London Film Festival by welcoming Paul Greengrass – one of the great supporters of the BFI and British film – back to London for the European premiere of CAPTAIN PHILLIPS. Our Festival audiences will be captivated by Greengrass’s virtuoso filmmaking; CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is an intense, high-stakes drama, focusing on two men forced onto a collision course by global political forces much larger than themselves. Featuring spellbinding performances by Tom Hanks and four Somali-American actors (Barkhad Abdi, Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman and Mahat M. Ali), we are excited to be presenting this film as our Opening Night Gala.”
The 57th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express runs from Wednesday 9 October-Sunday 20 October. The full programme for the Festival will be announced on Wednesday 4 September.
