Australian director Justin Kurzel is coming off his best film, 2021’s “Nitram.” His other works include “Snowtown,” “True History Of The Kelly Gang,” and “MacBeth.” Don’t even ask about his adaptation of “Assassin’s Creed.”
“Nitram” won Caleb Landry Jones the Best Actor award at Cannes, and the film got me excited for whatever Kurzel would do next. Enter, “The Order,” starring Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult, an investigative thriller with high potential.
There is some news about this one, and, in my opinion, it could seal a terrible fate for Kurzel’s film. Vertical, a sort of last-resort distributor, has bought “The Order” and plans a theatrical release later this year. Such a shame that this, apparently, received a hard pass from higher profile distributors.
In the spring, “The Order” was in the can and ready for Cannes, but ended up not showing up in the announced lineup. With Vertical onboard it might now skip the fall fests — I’m guessing its best bet is maybe a TIFF world premiere, but Vertical tends to also not do any festivals. Stay tuned.
Penned by Zach Baylin (King Richard) and adapted from Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s book, “The Silent Brotherhood”, “The Order” follows a real-life ‘80s white supremacist terrorist group in the Pacific Northwest.
“The Order” recently test screened in California. The print shown was said to be close to a final cut. Law is said to play the Idaho-based FBI agent tracking down the group, Hoult is the Nazi leader. The rest of the cast is composed of Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Odessa Young, Alison Oliver and Marc Maron.
Kurzel is currently shooting his TV series, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” starring Jacob Elordi, and based on Richard Flanagan’s novel. He might also go into production this fall on the sci-fi film “Morning,” which currently stars Laura Dern, Benedict Cumberbatch and Noah Jupe.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.