EXCLUSIVE: Neil Jordan's Ondine Lands With Magnolia Pictures

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Movieline has learned that Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Neil Jordan's twisty Irish fantasy Ondine, one of our bidding-war favorites from last year's Toronto International Film Festival and what appears to the final unreleased catalog cast-off from the defunct Paramount Vantage. Alas, it's not likely to be the version that premiered up North.

The film features Colin Farrell as a fisherman who snares a beautiful, mysterious woman while trolling off the Irish coast. His ill daughter thinks the woman is a mermaid; his ex-wife thinks she's just trouble. And a strange man with answers to everything stalks the proceedings in the background. It's a bit of a trip, totally beautiful, kind of all over the place, and the version I saw at TIFF featured a racy, operatic sex scene that must have been cut to achieve the film's recently awarded PG-13 rating. (Farrell and co-star Alicja Bachleda became an item on the set, welcoming a son last October.)

Magnolia reps did not respond to requests for comment, but their acquisition gives them two well-received Irish indies on the distributor's 2010 slate. Its other pick-up The Eclipse this week tied Ondine for the most Irish Film and Television Awards nominations with eight, including Best Picture, Director and Actor. More later on a release date as details trickle through.



Comments

  • Shee-ra says:

    Hope that racy love scene makes it onto the DVD version - maybe a Director's Cut edition. I'd like to see it how the director presented it at the festival.