Dev Patel in ‘Hotel Mumbai.’
The producers of Anthony Maras’ debut feature Hotel Mumbai are free to shop the thriller about the 2008 terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to US distributors after a court ruling.
In February the producers rescinded a distribution and marketing agreement with The Weinstein Co. (TWC) following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
However TWC included the title, which stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Jason Isaac Nazanin Boniadi and Tilda Cobham-Hervey, as a “top unreleased picture” to be sold to the bidder, Lantern Capital, in its March bankruptcy filing.
So the producers – Gary Hamilton’s Arclight Films, Julie Ryan, Jomon Thomas’s Xeitgeist Entertainment Group and Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road – asked a bankruptcy court judge in Delaware to rule that Hotel Mumbai was erroneously included among TWC’s assets.
Last week the court announced the producers had concluded a deal with TWC to reclaim the film in exchange for an undisclosed sum.
A private equity firm with no experience in the entertainment business, Lantern Capital expects to close its acquisition of TWC in a few weeks after offering to pay $US310 million in cash and assuming some of its debts.
The overseas distributors are aiming to launch Hotel Mumbai in September or October, in time for the 10-year anniversary of the hotel attack, according to Variety.
Icon Film Distribution is planning a wide release in Oz later this year after international film festival premieres.
Icon’s Nick Hayes told IF the film co-scripted by John Collee and Maras is “thrilling, it ratchets up the tension and you get taken on a real ride.”
Patel plays a newly promoted waiter, Hammer and Boniadi are wealthy new parents and Isaacs is a Russian businessman.