A24 and DIRECTV have swooped on their latest film, taking US rights from world sales agent HanWay Films to the upcoming Sundance world premiere starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn.

John Maclean’s directorial debut will screen in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and takes place in the late 1800’s as a 16-year-old journeys across the American Frontier in search of the woman he loves.

Fassbender plays the youngster’s mysterious companion and Mendelsohn is the outlaw on their tail.

Fassbender and Maclean previously worked together on two of Maclean’s short films, Man On A Motorcycle and the 2012 best short film BAFTA winner Pitch Black Heist.

Producing Slow West are Conor McCaughan, Fassbender’s partner at DMC Film, as well as Iain Canning and Emile Sherman of See-Saw Films and Rachel Gardner of Rachel Gardner Films.

Film4 developed the project and co-financed with the BFI, the New Zealand Film Commission and Fulcrum Media Finance. HanWay Films handled worldwide sales. 

A24 and DIRECTV previously partnered on Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeff Baena’s directorial debut and Sundance 2014 selection Life After Beth starring Aubrey Plaza and Dane DeHaan and Atom Egoyan’s The Captive with Ryan Reynolds.

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