‘Measure for Measure’.
Paul Ireland’s Measure for Measure will be released in North America by Samuel Goldwyn Films, the distributor’s third Australian acquisition this year.
The contemporary drama inspired by Shakespeare’s play, starring Hugo Weaving, Harrison Gilbertson, Megan Smart, Fayssal Bazzi, Mark Leonard Winter, Daniel Henshall, John Brumpton and Doris Younane, will go out on digital platforms on September 4.
Umbrella Films, which had planned a theatrical release in May that was scuttled after cinemas shuttered, will open the film on September 3.
Scripted by Ireland and the late Damian Hill, the plot follows the love affair between a modern Muslim girl and a local musician against the background of racial tension and gang culture in a notorious housing estate in Melbourne. Thea McLeod was the casting director
“In the current racial climate the world finds Itself, Measure for Measure becomes even more relevant to a society reaching out for love and equality,” the filmmakers said.
Bankside Films’ Stephen Kelliher negotiated the deal with Goldwyn. Screen Australia, the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund and Film Victoria co-funded. Bankside has sold the film to Spain and Italy and the UK is in negotiation, Ireland tells IF.
Goldwyn Films released Wayne Blair’s Top End Wedding on VOD in February and will launch Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music on VOD on July 17.