Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights, excluding France, to director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s debut film Mustang at the Cannes Film Festival. The project was presented at MIA|Cinema 2015 and is currently in pre-production. Written by the director together with Mona Fastvold and Brock Norman Brock, the film centers on a convict named Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is sent to a rehabilitation therapy program training wild mustangs. Thanks to a particularly wild and hard-to-tame horse, Roman will be forced to confront his past and his inner demons.
The film was developed through the Sundance Labs and received the Sundance Institute/NHK Award in 2015. Production will begin in September 2017. Focus chairman Peter Kujawski has described the movie as a “classic example of story illuminating the connection between human nature and animal instinct”. Mustang will be produced by Legende, while in France it will be distributed by France 3, Canal + and Ad Vitam.
