Sanjeev Singh, Videovision Entertainment’s Director of Acquisition and Distribution, announced the acquisition ofLay The Favorite and Shadow Dancer ahead of their World Premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. The Festival runs from tomorrow, 19 January to 29 January.
Lay The Favorite , directed by multi-award winner Stephen Frears, stars Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn and Laura Prepon. Set in the wild, extremely funny and lightning-paced world of legal and illegal sports gambling, Lay The Favorite follows unpredictable dreamer Beth as she goes from in-home stripper in Tallahassee to gambler’s assistant in Las Vegas, working for Dink (Bruce Willis), one of the most successful gamblers in the business. She takes to the work like a natural, but makes the risky bet to fall for Dink, much to the chagrin of his retired showgirl wife, Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones). That bet goes wrong, and a triangular war ensues. Against Dink’s protests, Beth goes to work for the flamboyant, unstable Rosie (Vince Vaughn) who runs a less-than-legal operation in New York City, then for his doomed hyper-speed online sportsbook in the betting Babylon of Curacao. When Beth’s risky gambles result in her innocent boyfriend threatened with prison, she must reunite with Dink, face up to the fearsome Tulip, risk jail, and return to New York to confront her responsibilities.Lay The Favorite will premiere at Sundance on Saturday, 21 January.
Shadow Dancer which is directed by James Marsh and stars Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, Aidan Gillen and Morgan Watkins premieres at Sundance on Tuesday, 24 January. The film focuses on single mother, Collette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough) who is a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and hardliner IRA brothers. When she is arrested for her part in an aborted IRA bomb plot in London, an MI5 officer offers her a choice: lose everything and go to prison for 25 years or return to Belfast to spy on her own family. With her son’s life in her hands, Collette chooses to place her trust in the MI5 (Morgan Watkins) officer and returns home, but when her brothers’ secret operation is ambushed, suspicions of an informant are raised and Collette finds both herself and her family in grave danger.
Sanjeev Singh commented, “We are delighted to have acquired the coveted South African distribution rights toLay The Favorite and Shadow Dancer prior to their World Premieres at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. We intend premiering these films at the Durban International Film Festival in July and thereafter we will release these films in South Africa later in the year.”
Lay The Favorite and Shadow Dancer will be released in South Africa by Videovision Entertainment through United International Pictures (South Africa).
