Row K Entertainment, which recently launched, has secured its first North American acquisition with Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” acquired out of the Toronto market, Deadline reveals.
This is Gus Van Sant’s comeback vehicle. After seven years away, the director of “Elephant,” “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Own Private Idaho” and “Good Will Hunting” returns with a strange, oddly inert film, which I reviewed at Venice.
Don’t get me wrong—reviews have been positive, but to me, a bit too generous. If that 100% on Rotten Tomatoes were truly an accurate assessment, a more prestigious studio, not Row K, would be behind it.
Set in 1977, the film tackles the true story of Tony Kiritsis who held a banker at gunpoint—Van Sant makes the wild true story dull. The movie wants to be “Dog Day Afternoon,” but it isn’t. Stylish, occasionally funny, anchored by a precise Bill Skarsgård performance, but it never ignites tension or envelopment. It admires the ’70s; it doesn’t live there.