‘The Current War,’ ‘Polaroid’ Get Overseas Distribution in Lantern Entertainment Partnership With 13 Films

Lantern landed the films after acquiring The Weinstein Co. out of bankruptcy for $289 million in July

The Current War
101 Studios

Lantern Entertainment is unloading more of the unreleased finished films it scooped up when it acquired the now-defunct The Weinstein Co.

Lantern Entertainment said on Monday that it has partnered with international film distribution and financing company 13 Films to release the buzzy “The Current War” and horror flick “Polaroid” overseas.

The company did not specify what the plan would be for the two films’ domestic releases.

“The Current War,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon, and “Polaroid” are the last two unreleased films in Lantern’s library. STXFilms acquired global rights to the studio’s Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston film “The Upside,” and “Hotel Mumbai” landed at Bleecker Street after the film’s producers bought back the rights.

“The Current War” was the talk of the Toronto International Film Festival last year and was initially scheduled for an awards-friendly December 2017 release before getting pushed.

The film follows the story of the cutthroat competition between Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Shannon) over whose electrical system would power the new century. Backed by J.P. Morgan, Edison dazzles the world by lighting Manhattan. But Westinghouse, aided by Nikola Tesla, has seen fatal flaws in Edison’s direct current design. Igniting a war of currents, Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on risky and dangerous alternating current.

The film was directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) from a script penned by playwright Michael Mitnick (“Sex Lives of Our Parents”).

The supernatural horror flick “Polaroid,” written and directed by Norwegian director Lars Klevberg, centers on high school loner Bird Fitcher (Kathryn Prescott), who stumbles upon a vintage Polaroid camera. She soon learns that the camera houses a terrible secret: whoever has their picture taken by it meets a tragic and violent end. Fitcher and her friends must survive one more night as they race to solve the mystery of the haunted Polaroid before it kills them all.

Lantern has been relatively quiet since acquiring TWC and its assets for $289 million. At the time of the deal closing, Lantern said it was considering any combination of possibilities for the unreleased finished films, from selling them off to releasing them in partnership.

Lantern lost out on Lin Manuel-Miranda’s “In the Heights,” based on the Broadway play he wrote with Quiara Alegría Hudes after producers won back the rights to the film, which has found a home at Warner Bros.

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