Amazon MGM has secured the UK rights to Russell Crowe’s latest film, The Last Druid, from Land Of Bad director William Eubank.
One of the films up for sale at the American Film Market was the Russell Crowe-headlined feature, The Last Druid. The recently announced film is set to be directed by Land Of Bad helmer William Eubank, and will see Crowe reunite with the director as he takes on the role of a Celtic druid hellbent on revenge with the invading Roman army in his crosshairs.
The film’s logline was released alongside its announcement a couple of weeks ago and it sounds like a lot of fun: the tale ‘will tell the story of a Roman Emperor who discovers a secluded Druid stronghold in the mountains of Caledonia. A peaceful Celtic elder (Crowe) must take up arms to protect his family and people from annihilation.’
As is often the case at the AFM, lots of distributors have picked the film up across many different territories, and according to Deadline, Amazon has acquired the film for release in the UK and Ireland. The primary question that raises is whether the film will get a theatrical release? Like fellow streamer Apple, Amazon’s commitment to theatrical releases has been a little less secure of late and it looks like its projects are facing increased scrutiny as to whether they get a theatrical window before appearing in cinemas.
The story surrounding Doug Liman and Road House is a well-publicised case, but the undersized theatrical push for Sundance favourite My Old Ass is another more recent example of the studio often electing to save costs on a theatrical release, even when the film itself seems to be the kind of movie that would play well in front of audiences.
Watching Russell Crowe beat up Roman soldiers is something that would surely play well in front of cinema audiences, so we’re hoping this one is announced as a wide theatrical release. Given that it won’t shoot until early next year, that will be some time away yet.
More on The Last Druid as we get it.
