TIFF 2010 Buyer’s Club: #7. Rowan Joffe’s Brighton Rock

#7. Brighton Rock

The Gist: Adapted from Graham Greene’s iconic 1939 novel, this charts the headlong fall of Pinkie, a razor-wielding disadvantaged teenager hell bent on clawing his way up through the ranks of organized crime. At the heart of the story is the anti-hero Pinkie’s relationship with Rose – an apparently innocent young waitress who stumbles on evidence linking Pinkie and his gang to a revenge killing that Pinkie commits.

Director: Rowan Joffe — Sales Agent: StudioCanal

Selling Point: Stylish. British. Crime mixed with sex. Helen Mirren. Good looking young thesps in Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough who will, or already have, broke out.

Suited For: You get the impression that in the past two years, plenty of distributors have tried their hand at British gangster/crime films and very few have made a mint with the genre. The studio who can distinguish this Helen Mirren film from the rest of her others films (she’s got about four releases within a short time frame), and can make this appeal to several audiences will have this year’s most sought after U.K title.