Top 100 Most Anticipated American Indie Films of 2018: #98. Paul Schrader’s Dark

What the Film Gods giveth and Film Gods taketh away simply doesn’t apply here. In the new year, we might have not one, but a pair of Paul Schrader films to look forward to. By far one of the best films coming out from TIFF’s 2017 edition and perhaps his career best, which is saying a lot given the treasure trove of offerings in his four decade filmography, First Reformed is currently pegged with an April 2018 release, but the curiosity item that will never see the light of day theatrically is Schrader’s retooling of the film that he didn’t get the chance to dot the i’s and cross the t’s for. It might be the most punk item in our top 100.

Dark is the version of the 5 million dollar produced Dying of the Light (read our original review) that Schrader would have wanted to put out there, but it’s also a whole other scrappy, avant-garde version that as an oeuvre will exist to remind us that remaining true to the creative process is something worth the fight. Forced into retirement and terminally ill, a CIA agent (Nicolas Cage) gets word that his longtime nemesis (Alexander Karim) has resurfaced, so he sets out on a personal mission to kill him.

Release Date/Prediction: With the further press spotlighting the release of First Reformed in the first quarter of ’18, we expect more details to drop on how we can access the film, but from what we gather, you’ll have to travel to the UCLA film archives or to the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin to access this.