Rich Peppiatt’s comedy-drama Kneecap opens in 237 cinemas across England, Wales and Scotland through Curzon this weekend, following a strong two weeks in its native Ireland.
The film opened in Ireland and Northern Ireland on August 8 through Wildcard Distribution and held a top five spot for its first two weekends amid summer box office competition, reaching £557,610 as of Sunday, August 18.
Kneecap is a semi-fictionalised story of the eponymous Belfast-based hip-hop trio, and charts their rise from the Gaeltacht Quarter of West Belfast to becoming popular music artists.
Group members Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin and JJ Ó Dochartaigh all star as themselves. The Irish-language title was chosen as Ireland’s entry for the Best International Feature Film Award at the 97th Oscars.
Kneecap became the first Irish-language film to premiere at Sundance Film Festival in January this year, winning the Next Audience Award. Its subsequent festival run has included SXSW and Tribeca in the US; Sundance London in the UK; Sydney and Karlovy Vary; and Ireland’s Galway Film Fleadh, where it won Best Irish Film, the Audience Award and the Irish Language Feature Film Award.
It is written and directed by Belfast-based UK filmmaker Rich Peppiatt in his feature debut. Peppiatt previously directed the music video for the band’s single ‘Guilty Conscience’.
Prior to working in the film industry, he was a journalist at UK national newspapers who came to prominence in 2011 when his letter of resignation from the Daily Star in protest at what he saw as the paper’s Islamophobia and unethical journalism went viral. Peppiatt turned the fallout from the incident and his experiences as a journalist into a stand-up comedy show called One Rogue Reporter, which played at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe.
Kravitz blinks
Warner Bros’ Blink Twice is this weekend’s widest new release, opening in 569 cinemas. The feature directorial debut of US actress Zoe Kravitz, the psychological thriller follows a cocktail waitress who becomes infatuated with a billionaire tech mogul, travelling to his private island where things begin to go wrong.
2017 Screen Star of Tomorrow Naomi Ackie stars in the film, alongside Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Kyle MacLachlan and Geena Davis.
Best known for his action and comedy roles, Tatum has branched out to dramatic parts on occasion, such as 2014’s Foxcatcher (£2.2m total) and a supporting role in 2015’s The Hateful Eight (£7.4m).
Entertainment Film Distributors is starting Rupert Sanders’ fantasy-action feature The Crow in 485 cinemas. The film stars Bill Skarsgard and UK singer-songwriter FKA Twigs (real name: Tahliah Debrett Barnett) in a reboot of the 1990s film series, itself adapted from James O’Barr’s 1989 comic book series.
Skarsgard stars as a man resurrected to avenge the deaths of himself and his girlfriend, played by Twigs.
The Crow is the fifth film in the franchise, which began with 1994’s The Crow directed by Alex Proyas, and continued with sequels in 1996, 2000 and 2005. Each film including the new instalment was produced by stalwart US producer Edward R. Pressman, who died in January 2023.
Cuckoo calls
Universal is opening German director Tilman Singer’s horror Cuckoo in 224 sites. After a world premiere in Berlinale Special in February, Cuckoo has played festivals including SXSW, Sydney and as the opening night of Raindance Film Festival.
The film stars Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer as a 17-year-old girl forced to move with her family to a creepy woodland resort in the German Alps, run by her father’s boss – played by 2006 Screen Star of Tomorrow Dan Stevens.
It is Singer’s second feature after 2018’s Luz, which debuted at Berlin and won awards on the genre festival circuit including at Fantastic Fest.
Nathan Silver’s US comedy-drama Between The Temples opens in 205 cinemas through Sony. Jason Schwartzman stars as a Jewish cantor having a crisis of faith, who has a new adult bat mitzvah student – his grade school music teacher. Sony picked up distribution rights at Sundance this year, before festival play at Berlin and Tribeca.
Vertigo Releasing is starting Thomas Napper’s Widow Clicquot, a drama about the 18th century story behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne family, in 73 cinemas; while Miracle/Dazzler is opening family animation Noah’s Ark in 254 cinemas.
Despite new titles offering signs of recovery in recent weeks, re-releases are still proving popular at the UK-Ireland box office. Sony has its latest Spider-Man release, 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, in 494 cinemas, after a £26m original run; while Paramount is putting Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 Palme d’Or-winning Pulp Fiction (£12.7m original total) in 420 cinemas for its 30th anniversary.
Limited releases include Justin Lerner’s Toronto 2021 thriller Cadejo Blanco in 5 cinemas through Bulldog Film Distribution; Polly Steele’s documentary The Mountain Within Me through Dogwoof; and Mira Mire’s Portuguese artist documentary Clandestina in one site through the ICA.
Two Indian titles hit cinemas this weekend, both through Dreamz Entertainment: a re-release of 2002 action title Indra starring Chiranjeevi in 14 cinemas, and comedy Maruthi Nagar Subramanyam in nine.
Despite a strong slate of new titles, the lack of fully-wide openers may allow Disney’s Alien: Romulus to hold the number one spot, with Sony’s It Ends With Us and Disney’s Marvel title Deadpool & Wolverine close behind.
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