Curious announces ‘Norwegian Wood’ & ‘Red State’ dates, 2011 schedule

UPDATE: Red State will now be released in Australia on 13 October 2011.

Curious Film, the distributors who brought us the magnificent Winter’s Bone last year, have announced their 2011 film schedule for Australia and there are some major coups in there. In addition to the previously announced Norwegian Wood, now due in cinemas on 6 October, Curious has scored Kevin Smith’s controversial horror film Red State for a 22 September release.

Curious have also announced that they’ve booked in Toomelah and Jiro Dreams of Sushi, both of which played at the Sydney Film Festival this year, for later in 2011.

Norwegian Wood

Release date: 6 October 2011

Published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, the novel NORWEGIAN WOOD is a story of loss and heartbreak in a time of global instability. Haruki Murakami’s bestselling novel – first published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, is brought to the screen by Tran Anh Hung (Golden Lion winner for CYCLO and Academy Award nominee for THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA) and features Japanese rising star Kenichi Matsuyama (DEATH NOTE, DETROIT METAL CITY) and Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi (BABEL) alongside newcomer Kiko Mizuhara.

Soundtrack composed by BAFTA & Grammy nominee Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)

Tokyo, the late 1960s… Students around the world are uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe’s personal life is similarly in tumult. At heart, he is deeply devoted to his first love, Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman. But their complex bond has been forged by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Watanabe lives with the influence of death everywhere. That is, until Midori, a girl who is everything that Naoko is not – outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – marches into his life and Watanabe must choose between his past and his future.

Red State

Release date: 22 September 2011

Written and directed by Kevin Smith and produced by Jonathan Gordon, RED STATE stars 2011 Academy Award® winner for Best Actress Melissa Leo and Emmy® winner John Goodman, plus Kyle Gallner and Michael Parks. The film debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to much notoriety when Smith ended studio bidding by buying his own film for $20 and declaring he would be self-distributing the film theatrically. Smith has since toured the film around the country to enthusiastic audiences, grossing close to $1 million to date at the US box office from only 15 single show engagements.

RED STATE tells the story of a group of teens in Middle America who receive an online invitation for sex, but soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.

UPDATE: Kevin Smith has announced that he will bring his Q & A roadshow to Australia with the film.

Toomelah

Release date: November 2011

The tiny community of Toomelah is made up of Gamilaroi and Bigambal people living in an old Aboriginal mission north of Mooree. This is the country where director Ivan Sen’s (Beneath Clouds, Dreamland) mother grew up and his deep personal connection to the place is palpable throughout this confronting, brutally honest dramatic feature that draws its acting talent from within the community. Ten-year-old Daniel (Daniel Connors) is a good little boxer like his dad Buster (Michael Connors) used to be. Impatient with the other kids at school – except for his sweetheart Tanitia (Danieka Connors) – he starts hanging out with Linden (Christopher Edwards), the local dealer, who trains him up to be a gangster. When a thug named Bruce (Dean Daley-Jones) returns to town after a stint in jail, he threatens Linden’s territory and Daniel is suddenly propelled towards violence. Raw, intimate, and laced with mob humour, Toomaleh seamlessly intertwines issues like the Stolen Generation, substance abuse and cultural erasure with an everyday story about one boy caught in the downward spiral of a neglected community. Selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Sen’s provocative film “tastes like dust in the mouth [and] strikes like iron in the mind.” (from The Back of Beyond) Toomelah was selected for the Cannes International Film Festival 2011 – Un Certain Regard.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Release date: TBC (following the Melbourne International Film Festival)

From the Sydney Film Festival program: “Sukiyabashi Jiro must be the smallest three-star Michelin restaurant in the world. A basement eatery in Ginza, Tokyo, with just ten stools, no credit cards accepted and no printed menu, it doesn’t look like a gourmet destination. Behind the unassuming façade, however, stands octogenarian sushi master chef Jiro Ono. He’s a perfectionist at his craft, even changing the plate layout for left-handed customers, in keeping with the Japanese tradition of shokunin kishitsu or artisan’s spirit. He’s also an exacting teacher: one of his apprentices recalls making 200 tamago (omelettes) before Ono gave his final approval. His eldest son, the 50-something Yoshikazu, is apprehensive about maintaining his father’s standards. The younger son, as tradition allows, runs his own restaurant, one that offers a more relaxed dining experience – with chairs and tables. The creation of the Jiros’ prized sushi is photographed in exquisite detail by director and cinematographer David Gelb.”