Jude Law thriller “The Order,” which opens next week in the U.S., has not been an easy sell amid the current Trumpian zeitgeist.
The Justin Kurzel-directed film, in which Law plays an FBI agent fighting white supremacist terrorists in 1980s Idaho, is emblematic of how U.S. buyers are gun shy in general right now. And particularly so, when it comes to politically sensitive fare.
“When we came to sell the film (before its Venice launch) there were some distributors who were outwardly nervous that its subject matter was divisive from a Red State/Blue State perspective,” said “The Order” producer Stuart Ford on Saturday speaking on the sidelines of Morocco’s Marrakech Film Festival, where the thriller was the warmly received opener.
“We think that was a hopelessly overcautious way of looking at the film. But that definitively was a factor,” added Ford, who heads prominent indie content company AGC Studios.
Based on true events, “The Order” is set in 1983 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Law puts in a powerful performance as a lone FBI agent who, following a series of increasingly violent bank robberies and car heists, comes to realize that they’re the work of a group of dangerous domestic neo-Nazi white suprematist terrorists. They are inspired by the real-life radical leader Robert Jay Mathews, played by Nicholas Hoult, and are plotting a war against the U.S. government.
Ford said that “There is no doubt” that “The Order” fits into the Trumpian Zeitgeist. “Unfortunately, the relevance of the film speaks for itself,” he noted.
“We did debate significantly – both before we sold U.S. distribution rights, and then afterward, when we had a U.S. distribution partner – about: Do we release the film before the election, or after the election?,” the producer revealed.
“In the end we decided to go with whatever made more sense for the film, from a competitive prospective, because the reality of the film is no more or less relevant because of what happened before,” Ford went on to point out.
Vertical will be giving “The Order” a U.S. platform release on 600-700 screens starting Dec. 6, while Amazon, which owns most international rights, will release the film in the U.K. on Dec. 27.
Does Ford think “The Order” will ruffle feathers in the U.S.? “No,” he said, “because I don’t think there are any more feathers left to be ruffled,” after all the post-election commotion. Also, “The movie rocks, both as an old school crime thriller and as a piece of polemic, if you will,” he noted. “We have all the ingredients of a strong end-of-year release in the indie fashion,” Ford went on to add.
Meanwhile, in a further indication of how tough the U.S. indie market is at the moment, aside from any political connotations that films may have, another Jude Law-starrer produced by AGC, Ron Howard’s “Eden,” remains without distribution, though Ford said he has high hopes of closing a deal on “Eden” soon.
