Roadside Attractions has acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights to William Oldroyd’s feature debut film, “Lady Macbeth.”
One of the Toronto International Film Festival’s hottest titles, the movie is an adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novella “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.”
The film stars breakout actor Florence Pugh and also features Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton and Christopher Fairbank. It was written by award-winning playwright Alice Birch and produced by Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly.
The movie is set in rural England in 1865 and follows Katherine (Pugh), who is in a loveless marriage with a man twice her age. She embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on her husband’s estate.
The film was a hot commodity for distributors right after the its world premiere screening at TIFF last week.
“We were bowled over by luminous star-in-the-making Florence Pugh in the title role. Florence, director Will Oldroyd and screenwriter Alice Birch are the greatest discoveries of this year’s TIFF,” said Eric d’Arbeloff, co-president of Roadside Attractions.
It is a Sixty Six Pictures and iFeatures production and a Creative England, BBC Films and BFI presentation in association with Oldgarth Media.
Protagonist Pictures’ head of worldwide sales Vanessa Saal and CEO Mike Goodridge negotiated the sale on behalf of the filmmakers.