The homevid label Panorama Ent. have picked up some table scraps that nobody wants in Niki Caro’s The Vintner’s Luck – a surprise bomb that appeared at the 2009 edition of TIFF from the filmmaker who gave us the affecting The Whale Rider. The wine-making period romance will make its U.S. premiere this month at the Sedona Film Festival with a theatrical roll-out planned for this spring/summer.
Gist: An adaptation of Elizabeth Knox’s novel of the same name, the film is a story of love, wine and angels set in early 19th century France. It tells the tale of an ambitious, young, peasant winemaker and his lifelong relationship with an angel as together they grapple with the sensual, the sacred and the profane in search of the perfect vintage.
Worth Noting: With the kind of accolades that Caro received for her debut film, she then directed 2005’s North Country – the miner fighting abuse in the workplace drama featuring Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Jeremy Renner, Richard Jenkins and Sissy Spacek.
Do We Care?: We avoided it like the plague at TIFF and the bad press there pretty much killed any desires to eventually catch up with the project.
