French distributor Bac Films is releasing Takeshi Kitano's Brother on 300 screens across France on Wednesday, marking the country's biggest ever release of a Japanese film.

"It is also the largest opening anywhere for a film of mine," Kitano said at a press conference in Tokyo.

The film, a cross-border gang thriller starring Kitano, Omar Epps and Claude Maki, is scheduled to be released in Japan and other European territories in January and in the US through Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) in April. SPC plans to platform the film at selected theatres in Los Angeles and New York in February.

In Japan, Office Kitano, the director's production company, plans to hold what it describes as a "10,000-person preview" on 27 screens on January 19, just prior to the film's nationwide release through Shochiku. The film's producer, Masayuki Mori, said that his goal is one million admissions, which would make Brother the highest-grossing of any of Kitano's nine films.

A co-production of Office Kitano and Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Picture Company (RPC), Brother premiered at this year's Venice International Film Festival.