Sony Pictures Classics Picks Up 'The Red Turtle' For North America

This week saw the world premiere of Michael Dudok de Wit's highly anticipated The Red Turtle at the Cannes International Film Festival. The co-production by Studio Ghibli and France's Wild Bunch screened for the first time on May 18th to extremely positive reviews. The film is already set for release in France and Japan, and now Sony have swooped in to pick up the rights to release the film in North and Latin America, through their Sony Pictures Classics line.

It's too early for a release date to be announced, but at least those of you who live in the US, Canada or Latin America can be reassured that it is coming. And with Sony Pictures Classics involved, it should be a pretty wide release too. If you live in the United States at least, the chances you'll get to see this on the big screen at a cinema near you are looking pretty good. No UK release has been announced at this time, unfortunately.


The Red Turtle is the feature début of Oscar-winning animator Dudok de Wit, and the first co-production of this kind for Studio Ghibli. It follows a ship-wrecked man on a tropical island, and is entirely dialogue-free.

Sony Classics say "The Red Turtle takes you on an ultimate journey through life. It sweeps you up in fantasy, poetry, and awesome visual beauty. Artistically and commercially it is a major movie for all ages," And based on what we've seen so far (the first trailer was released last week) we think you'd be hard pressed to disagree.

A new Japanese teaser has also been released, which you can find below.






[ANN via Deadline]