After “Nitram” wowed critics at the Cannes Film Festival three years ago, with Caleb Landry Jones winning Best Actor for his role, many expected Justin Kurzel‘s would return to the Croisette with his next film, “The Order.” But Deadline reports that Kurzel’s upcoming true crime movie won’t hit the festival circuit yet, if it even is at all. Instead, Vertical acquired the rights to “The Order” with plans for a theatrical release later this year. Is that a bad sign for Kurzel’s latest and its overall quality? Maybe, maybe not.
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On paper, “The Order” sounds like the “Macbeth” directors most intense movie to date. Based on true events documented in Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt‘s book “The Silent Brotherhood,” the film follows Jude Law as an Idaho FBI agent who faces off against a domestic terrorist group terrorizing the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s. Nicholas Hoult co-stars as the white supremacist leader, with Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, and Alison Oliver also co-starring. Odessa Young, Sebastian Pigott, George Tchortov, Victor Slezak, and Marc Maron round out the main cast. “King Richard” scribe Zach Baylin adapts Flynn and Gerhardt’s book for the big screen.
With that kind of cast and Baylin supplying the script, “The Order” looks like a winner: a true crime thriller that matches a similar bent as “Green Room,” another PNW-set film with white supremacists. But Vertical isn’t exactly a prestige distributor; unfortunately, it has the reputation of where bad films go as a last resort. That doesn’t necessarily mean “The Order” is a bust for Kurzel, nor will the film not get a festival premiere later this year (TIFF feels like a reasonable option there). Rather, it’s deflating to see Kurzel follow up a critical darling like “Nitram” with a movie that seems destined not to reach a mass audience. But let’s not be too unfair to “The Order”; these predictions are hypothetical at best.
AGC Studios’ Stuart Ford leads producers on “The Order” alongside Bryan Haas through Chasing Epic Pictures and Law‘s Riff Raff Entertainment. Sean Patrick O’Reilly also serves as a producer on the film. Executive producers include Miguel A. Palos, Zach Garrett, Anant Tamirisa, Baylin, Kate Susman, Ben Jackson, Stephen Fuss, Alastair Burlingham, Gary Raksin, and Eric Rebalkin. Lynne Bespflug also serves as a co-producer.
“I am looking forward to working with Vertical on the release of “The Order,”” Kurzel told Deadline in a press statement. “It was a privilege getting to work with such an extraordinary cast and crew on such a thrilling script by Zach Baylin, a story from the past speaking so directly with the present.” Vertical partner Peter Jarowey followed up with a press statement of his own: “It’s fantastic to be back in business with Stuart and the AGC team on “The Order” and to bring Justin’s riveting story to US audiences later this year. Based on true life events, Jude, Nicholas, and Tye’s dynamic performances will have moviegoers glued to their seats from start to finish.”
Stay tuned for an official release date for “The Order.” And let’s hope Kurzel’s latest isn’t a misfire; this is the guy who made “Snowtown” and “True History Of The Kelly Gang,” after all.