Ryan Gosling news! 😀
COWBOY PICTURES TO RELEASE ALEX AND ANDREW SMITH’S THE SLAUGHTER RULE, STARRING RYAN GOSLING, IN THEATERS
New York, NY, November 1, 2002 -Cowboy Pictures President John Vanco announced today that the company has taken on North American rights, excluding U.S. pay television, DVD and Home Video, for Alex and Andrew Smith’s The Slaughter Rule starring Ryan Gosling and David Morse. In a separate deal Sundance Channel acquired the U.S. pay television rights, DVD and Home Video. The film also stars Clea Duvall and Kelly Lynch and premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
The Slaughter Rule is co-written and co-directed by the sibling team of Alex and Andrew Smith and produced by Michael Robinson of Barnstorm Entertainment and Gregory O’Connor and Gavin O’Connor of Solaris (Tumbleweeds). Developed at the 1998 Writing and Filmmaking Labs at the Sundance Institute, The Slaughter Rule premiered in the
dramatic competition of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. The film was also seen in the New Directors/New Films festival presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, New York in March of 2002. After a sneak screening on Sundance Channel in December 2002, the film will show in theaters nationally.Stephen Holden of The New York Times called The Slaughter Rule a “lyrical meditation on the frontier spirit, American machismo and its torments” while Dennis Lim of the Village Voice said the film was “the most impressive feature by far in the [Sundance Film Festival] dramatic competition..a rich and complicated tale of compassion in a cold climate”, while David Ansen of Newsweek wrote that the film had “a bred-in-the-bone sense of place, and a willingness to take big emotional risks.”
The Slaughter Rule is a hauntingly beautiful story exploring themes of manhood in the rough and tumble landscape of rural Montana. In the tradition of The Last Picture Show, the film vividly depicts the harsh life of a teenage boy coming of age in today’s American west. Ryan Gosling (The Believer, Murder By Numbers) plays “Roy,” a
sensitive young man grappling with the death of his father and his identity as a tough kid in a tough land. David Morse (The Green Mile, Dancer in the Dark, Hearts In Atlantis) is “Gid,” a derelict of a man who recruits Roy to play on his 6-man football team, and whose past haunts both he and Roy. Shot in Widescreen (super) 35mm, the film is a poetic ode to growing up wild in America. The excellent supporting cast includes Clea Duvall (Girl, Interrupted, The Laramie Project) as Roy’s complex love interest along with Kelly Lynch (Charlie’s Angels), David Cale (Pollock) and Eddie Spears in a starring debut performance.The Slaughter Rule will air on Sundance Channel on December 28, 2002 and be released on vhs/dvd on February 18, 2003. Sundance Channel Home Entertainment product is distributed by Showtime Entertainment.