XYZ Films has acquired U.S. rights to the classic Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title “The World is Yours” directed by Romain Gavras from StudioCanal and to the TIFF hit film “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” directed by Simon Hawkins and Zeke Hawkins. The hyper-stylized films are the first titles in a new XYZ initiative to introduce audiences to classic festival hits that cater to cinema fans.
“The World is Yours” premiered at Cannes in 2018 and stars Karim Leklou, Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Cassel and Oulaya Amamra and was co-written by Gavras, Karim Boukercha and Noe Debre. In the film, a mid-level drug dealer (Leklou) dreams of having a new life, but his mother (Adjani) has gambled away his savings. He must take one last job in Spain, but his entourage gets involved: his mother, his ex-con friend, his crush, and possibly The Illuminati.
Meanwhile, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” originally screened at TIFF in 2013 and went on to be released in US theaters later that year under the title “Bad Turn Worse.” XYZ will revert the film back to its original title for the re-release. In the film, three Texas teens (Jeremy Allen White, Logan Huffman, and Mackenzie Davis) hope to make a break for it and escape their dead-end existence but get sucked into the underbelly of organized crime when one of them steals from the wrong man.
Popular on Variety
White has since gone on to become an Emmy-winning household names thanks to Hulu hit series “The Bear,” while Mackenzie Davis is perhaps best known for her roles in “Halt and Catch Fire” and “Black Mirror” and played the enhanced super-soldier Grace in “Terminator: Dark Fate.”
“The World Is Yours” director Gavras saw his third feature “Athena” premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and is is currently set to direct the Cannes market title “Sacrifice,” with Chris Evans, Ana Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek Pinault and Brendan Fraser.
“We’re excited to be picking up exceptional re-release titles like these, and bringing them to new audiences,” said XYZ’s president of domestic distribution James Emanuel Shapiro. “It’s an initiative that augments our main strategy of first run titles and allows us to showcase films that we love.”
XYZ Films recently announced the global acquisition of “The Ritual” starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens, and the TIFF acquisition “Backspot” starring Devery Jacobs and Evan Rachel Wood releasing later this month. Other recent releases include the Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead film “Something In The Dirt” which premiered at Sundance 2022.
