‘True History of the Kelly Gang.’
People who are keen to see Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang in cinemas won’t have many options – and they’ll have to be quick.
Transmission Films is launching the subversive bushranger saga on January 9, just 17 days before it premieres on Stan as a Stan Original.
Thus far the Shaun Grant-scripted drama starring George MacKay, Russell Crowe, Essie Davis, Nicholas Hoult and Charlie Hunnam has been booked by the Eddie Tamir family-owned Randwick Ritz Cinemas and Melbourne’s Lido, Classic and Cameo cinemas, plus the Backlot in Perth and Dendy locations except Opera Quays.
It appear most of the other cinemas which screened the Netflix productions The King, The Irishman, Marriage Story and The Two Popes, despite the three-week window before the streaming premieres, have declined to show Kurzel’s film.
The major chains are fiercely protecting the traditional 90-day window and are resisting moves which they see as threats to the primacy of the theatrical window.
Transmission’s alternate content releases Brittany Runs a Marathon and The Report several weeks before their streaming debuts on Amazon Prime Video stoked further concerns about the window.
Kurzel’s film is not listed among the upcoming releases on the websites of Palace Cinemas, which screened The Report, Mike Walsh’s Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace in Cremorne and Peter Sourris’ New Farm Cinemas and The Elizabeth Picture Theatre in Brisbane.
Scott Mota, Dendy/Icon head of group marketing, tells IF: “I can confirm we will be screening True History of the Kelly Gang as a limited season from January 9.
“As we’ve said before, it’s alternative content, just like Brittany Runs a Marathon and The Report. We are releasing the film exactly the same way. Limited season, limited sessions.”
IFC Films, which bought North American rights to the film produced by Porchlight Films’ Liz Watts, Daybreak Pictures’ Hal Vogel, Kurzel and Paul Ranford before the world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, has yet to set a release date.