Janus Films has picked up all North American rights to Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s historical drama Magellan that just screened in Cannes Premiere.
Gael García Bernal stars as the 16th century eponymous Portuguese explorer who upon reaching the Malayan Archipelago becomes obsessed with conquest and conversion, triggering violent uprisings.
Magellan marks the first feature in colour from Diaz since 2013 Un Certain Regard Award selection Norte, The End Of History. His credits include 2014 Locarno Golden Leopard winner From What Is Before and 2016 Venice Golden Lion winner The Woman Who Left.
Portugal’s Rosa Filmes produced Magellan, while Andergraun Films (Spain), Black Cap Pictures (Philippines), Ten17P (Philippines), El Viaje Filmes (Spain), Volos Films (Taiwan), Lib Films (France), and AKP21 (France) served as co-producers. Janus Films negotiated the deal with Luxbox.
Janus recently acquired North American rights to Bi Gan’s Cannes Competition entry and Special Jury prize winner Resurrection, and will release Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s thriller Cloud in July, followed by Ira Sachs’ Sundance entry Peter Hujar’s Day in autumn.
The company took Gints Zibalodis’ Latvian film Flow all the way to the animation Oscar last season and that film remans its biggest box office hit to date. Credits include Jerzy Skolimowski’s Oscar-nominated Eo, and David Cronenberg’s thriller The Shrouds.
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