John Krokidas’ Kill Your Darlings debuted at Sundance to very positive early reviews, and with the film returning to the festival circuit next week in Toronto, things are looking good for what could well prove to be an Oscar contender in the coming months.
Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan take the lead as Allen Ginsberg and Lucien Carr, respectively. And with the first trailer set to officially debut this week, Sony Classics have released a handful of new images of the leading duo alongside some of the fellow cast.
While he is attending Columbia University in 1944, the young Allen Ginsberg’s life is turned upside down when he sets eyes on Lucien Carr, an impossibly cool and boyishly handsome classmate. Carr opens Ginsberg up to a bohemian world and introduces him to William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. Repelled by rules and conformity in both life and literature, the four agree to tear down tradition and make something new, ultimately formulating the tenets of and giving birth to what became the Beat movement. On the outside, looking in, is David Kammerer, a man in his thirties desperately in love with Carr. When Kammerer is found dead, and Kerouac, Burroughs, and Carr are arrested in conjunction with the murder, the nascent artists’ lives change forever.
Ben Foster, Jack Huston, Elizabeth Olsen, Michael C. Hall, David Cross, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kyra Sedgwick, and David Rasche join Radcliffe and DeHaan in the biographical drama, making for one of the most promising ensemble casts of the year.
Krokidas is directing from a script he co-wrote with Austin Bunn, both of whom make their feature debuts with the film.
Kill Your Darlings will begin its limited release in the US on October 18th, with SPC rolling it out across the States in successive weeks. And here in the UK, its release date is set a little later for 8th November, which suggests that an appearance at the BFI London Film Festival in October is all the more likely.
