Focus Features will open Participant Media’s untitled Tom McCarthy project ne Stillwater on Friday, Nov. 6, 2020 in limited release with a further expansion on Nov. 13 and Nov. 20. That’s the same platform release pattern as McCarthy’s Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight back in November 2015, which he took home an original screenplay trophy for, shared with Josh Singer.
McCarthy’s new film stars Matt Damon as an Oklahoma oil-rig roughneck who heads to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter who is in prison for a murder she claims she didn’t commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin also star.
Screenplay is by Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré, McCarthy, Marcus Hinchey. Steve Golin, McCarthy, Jonathan King, and Liza Chasin are producing.
Universal Pictures International has the pic in select international markets.
The first weekend is a rich one for launching awards season fare with such pics like Focus’ Theory of Everything and A24’s Lady Bird opening in that corridor. Currently set are wide entries: Disney/Marvel’s The Eternals, Sony Animation’s Vivo and Fox’s animated Ron’s Gone Wrong (one of those last two pics has to budge).