TIFF: Joel Edgerton, Marion Cotillard, Vanessa Kirby, Alessandro Nivola to star in Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’

Protagonist Pictures will launch international sales at the Toronto International Film Festival; CAA Media Finance to handle US rights

Golden Globe nominee Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased, Loving), Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (Inception, La Vie En Rose) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, Dunkirk) will headline the cast of The Brutalist, the third film from director Brady Corbet. Sebastian Stan (Marvel’s Captain America franchise, I, Tonya), Isaach De Bankolé (Black Panther, Calvary), and Vanessa Kirby (Mission Impossible – Fallout, “The Crown”) will also star in the ensemble alongside Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle, upcoming The Many Saints of Newark), Raffey Cassidy (Vox Lux, The Killing of a Sacred Deer), and Stacy Martin (Vox Lux, Nymphomaniac vol. I and II).

Co-written with partner Mona Fastvold, Corbet’s film chronicles 30 years in the life of one artist’s enduring monolithic vision. When visionary architect László Toth (Edgerton) and his wife Erzsébet (Cotillard) flee post-war Europe to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious and wealthy client (Rylance). The incomparable Brady Corbet returns with an epic saga and an unconventional love story that will take László and Erzsébet to both monumental heights and devastating lows. The project has set a start date of January 2021.

Protagonist Pictures will debut the package with a special presentation to buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival. CAA Media Finance is repping US rights and arranging the project’s financing.

Andrew Lauren and D.J. Gugenheim are producing for Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP), Brian Young is producing for Three Six Zero, Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon are producing for Brookstreet Pictures, which is financing, and Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, and David Hinojosa of Killer Films are set to executive produce.

Corbet last directed the Natalie Portman and Jude Law starring Vox Lux. His first feature, The Childhood of a Leader, won the Best Director and Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film at the Venice International Film Festival in 2015.

Andrew Lauren commented: “Brady’s third feature, The Brutalist, is a continuation of his unique interpretation of major historical moments of the past century. This story resonates for me as the grandson of an immigrant artist, and is unquestionably relevant to the political discourse we are having in America today.”

Brady Corbet said: “Amidst a revamped cycle of populism and prejudice in the 21st Century, The Brutalist is a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors. It is the project which is so far the closest to my heart and family history. I so look forward to reuniting with many of our closest collaborators, as well as some exciting new ones, to realise what we all anticipate to be a vital and urgent motion picture”.

Joel Edgerton is represented by CAA and Anonymous Content. Marion Cotillard is represented by CAA and Agence Adéquat. Mark Rylance is represented by CAA. Sebastian Stan is represented by CAA, Brookside Artist Management and Sloane Offer Weber & Dern. Isaach De Bankóle is represented by Margrit Polak Management, Peach House and Cinéart. Vanessa Kirby is represented by CAA, Hamilton Hodell, Linden Entertainment, and Ziffren Brittenham. Alessandro Nivola is represented by CAA. Raffey Cassidy is represented by UTA and McKuin Frankel Whitehead LLP. Stacy Martin is represented by 42, WME and Agence Adéquat. Brady Corbet is represented by CAA and Three Six Zero Group. 

Protagonist Pictures is an international sales, finance, and production company with a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.

Current titles include Limbo, directed by Ben Sharrock and starring Amir El-Masry, Kitty Green’s The Assistant, starring Julia Garner, Sound of Metal, directed by Darius Marder, starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke, Saint Maud, from Screen’s 2018 Stars of Tomorrow writer/director Rose Glass and starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle, Surge, directed by Aneil Karia and starring Ben Whishaw, How to Build a Girl, based on the novel by Caitlin Moran and starring Beanie Feldstein and Alfie Allen, My Zoe, from writer/director Julie Delpy, starring alongside Daniel Brühl and Gemma Arterton, and Drake Doremus’ Endings, Beginnings, starring Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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