Sony Pictures Classics nabs worldwide rights to Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Strange Way of Life’ with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal

Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired worldwide rights (excluding the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Latin America) to Pedro Almodóvar’s short film, Strange Way of Life, starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. This follows the news that the short will premiere as an official selection at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. It is Almodóvar’s second English-language project after The Human Voice, which was also distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. Sony Pictures Classics picked up the short in pre-production and will release it this fall.  

Produced by Almodóvar’s El Deseo and presented by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, Strange Way of Life also stars Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández and Sara Sálamo. It is produced by Agustín Almodóvar, with Esther García as executive producer and Bárbara Peiró, Diego Pajuelo, and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello as associate producers. 

The score is composed by four-time Academy Award nominee Alberto Iglesias, a regular Almodóvar collaborator who received his most recent Oscar nomination in 2022 for Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers. All characters are costumed by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

Strange Way of Life follows two gunmen who reunite after 25 years. Almodóvar describes the film in his director’s statement: “A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen. Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship…” 

This acquisition is the latest in a long relationship between Almodóvar and Sony Pictures Classics. Most recently, the distributor released Almodóvar’s short film The Human Voice and Parallel Mothers. The latter earned two Oscar nominations, Best Original Score for Iglesias and Best Actress for Penélope Cruz.