In many ways,
Ryan Phillipe has had a more subdued career than perhaps he should. Never having pursued clunkily commercial feature like his contemporaries, he has taken a series of serious dramatical projects, the majority of which have been worthwhile, a number having achieved both awards and critical praise- Crash being notable as an Oscar winner- but none have resulted in a reputation commensurate with his abilities or charisma. His new film,
The Bang Bang Club, looks set to be similair intone to a number of the projects he pursued in the past, however, the dramatic real life origins of the narrative coupled with journalistic interest exists in the award winning photographers of its subject, could potentially see the sort of coverage that would make the career leap to super-stardom for the actor. A trailer has just dropped for the movie that will soon play at the Tribecca Film Festival. See it below or in
HD at Apple; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE9-No6apbw According to Publishers Weekly, the narrative of the original books runs as follows:
Four white South African photographers (Marinovich, Silva, Kevin Carter and Greg Oosterbroek) decide to chronicle the years of violence ostensibly "black on black" violence but actually apartheid-sanctioned violence aimed at destabilizing the ANCAthat marked the time from Nelson Mandela's release from prison to the first non-racial elections in their land. Before those years passed, two of them would be dead (one by his own hand), and their lives would be forever change
In the film by
Steven Silver- making his feature debut- issues of exploitation, risk taking, propaganda and bravery are explored through the lives of the four men, one of whom- the famous Kevin Carter (played by
Taylor Kitsch) - went on to win the Pulitzer Prize before killing himself the following year. Carter was immortalized in a Manic Street Preachers song of the same name. Another of the men, Jao Silva, recently returned to the headlines having lost the lower half of both legs, while taking photographs in Afghanistan.
Malin Akerman plays a love interest. The movie, which debuted to a mixed response at the Toronto Film Festival last year, has secured North American distribution through Entertainment One and Tribeca, but has yet to be picked up for European audiences. However, the film will have its theatrical premier in the States on April 22nd, and if it is as successful as its trailer suggests it might be, it wont be long before it sees the light of day across the Atlantic.