Dallas-Buyers-Club-PosterBased on a true story, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club has long been on the radar as one of this year’s Oscar heavyweight contenders, with Matthew McConaughey continuing to diversify his career with incredibly interesting roles.

Set to premiere out in Toronto at the start of next month, Focus Features have now launched the first trailer and poster, via Apple, giving an impressive first glimpse at the upcoming R-rated drama.

Matthew McConaughey stars in DALLAS BUYERS CLUB as real-life Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof, whose free-wheeling life was overturned in 1985 when he was diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. These were the early days of the AIDS epidemic, and the U.S. was divided over how to combat the virus. Ron, now shunned and ostracized by many of his old friends, and bereft of government-approved effective medicines, decided to take matters in his own hands, tracking down alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Bypassing the establishment, the entrepreneurial Woodroof joined forces with an unlikely band of renegades and outcasts – who he once would have shunned – and established a hugely successful “buyers’ club.” Their shared struggle for dignity and acceptance is a uniquely American story of the transformative power of resilience.

McConaughey is joined by a stellar cast, led by Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts, Kevin Rankin, Denis O’Hare, Griffin Dunne, and Jane McNeill.

Vallée (Café de Flore, The Young Victoria) is directing from a script co-written by newcomer Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack (Mirror Mirror).

As you can imagine, the film boasts an impressive team on both sides of the camera, with Robbie Brenner (Mirror Mirror) and Rachel Winter (Brooklyn Rules) producing alongside executive producers Nicolas Chartier (The Hurt Locker, Killer Joe) and Cassian Elwes (Blue Valentine, Lawless).

Dallas Buyers Club has had its release moved up in the US by Focus, who will now be putting it into theatres on November 1st. And here in the UK, it’s set to arrive early next year on 7th February, by which time we should know if it will be heading for the Academy Awards a few weeks down the line.

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