08/03/2006

"The Road to Guantanamo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the most successful Michael Winterbottom film we’ve handled", said Joy Wong, head of Works International, to Cineuropa.

Indeed, the London-based sales company has half a dozen Winterbottom titles in its catalogue, including the 2003 Golden Bear winner In This World. But none of them has sold as fast as the latter to as many territories: since its world premiere at last month’s Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for Best Director (a prize shared by Winterbottom with Mat Whitecross), The Road To Guantanamo has already been sold to over 35 territories according to Wong.

These territories include France (CTV International), Italy (Fandango Distribuzione), Spain (Alta), Germany and Austria (Falcom Media), Greece and Cyprus (Prooptiki), Switzerland (Elite Film), Scandinavia (Sandrew Metronome), Hungary (Budapest Film), ex-Yugoslavia (HG Market), Turkey (Pi Film), and Japan (Klockworks).

The £1.3m (€1.8m) film was originally intended as a TV drama and produced by Revolution Films for the UK’s Channel 4, on which it will air tomorrow at 9 pm. Millions of UK viewers will be able to follow the story of the Tipton Three, the three British Muslims who were held at the US military base of Guantanamo for two years without being charged or tried. On Friday, March 10, an even bigger audience will be offered the film simultaneously on the Internet, in retail shops (on DVD) and in cinemas. Thanks to a deal struck by Andrew Eaton, producer of the film and Winterbottom’s partner at Revolution Films, and Tony Jones, head of arthouse cinema circuit City Screen, The Road To Guantanamo will be shown on some fifteen 35mm prints as well in digital screenings (through the UK Film Council’s new Digital Screen Network) in London and extensively throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire, the region from which the ‘Tipton Three’ hail.