VENICE - The Venice film festival kicks off on Wednesday with a world premiere for “Everest,” a $65-million 3D drama based on a real-life disaster on the Himalayan peak. Director Baltasar Kormakur's two-hour film recounts the events of May 10-11, 1996, when eight climbers died near the summit after being caught in ferocious blizzard conditions. In particular it focuses on the internal dynamics and characters of two groups led by New Zealander Rob Hall, played by Australian actor Jason Clarke, and American Scott Fischer, played in surfer-dude style by Jake Gyllenhaal.
Portrayed as equally talented but temperamentally contrasting, the two men were among those who died over the course of two days in which no fewer than 34 people were attempting to reach the summit in brutal conditions, ultimately resulting in a series of life-and-death decisions having to be made under almost unimaginable duress.
“Everest” is being shown out of competition, with festival director Alberto Barbera hoping his curtain raiser will have a similar impact to “Gravity,” which opened in Venice two years ago and went on to win a slew of Oscars, and “Birdman,” which also enjoyed critical and commercial success after being unveiled on the Lido last year.
Those two successes have helped to put Venice firmly back on the international festival map after several years in which it had appeared destined to become completely eclipsed by Toronto.
Also due to be shown for the first time was streaming giant Netflix's debut foray into feature films, “Beasts of No Nations.”
The Carkey Fukunaga-directed drama about child soldiers in Africa is among 21 works competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.
Featuring Idris Elba and an otherwise largely unknown cast, the adaption of Uzodinma Iweala's novel will be released in October simultaneously to a limited number of cinemas and to Netflix's 65 million subscribers around the world.
Major cinema chains in the United States and elsewhere have so far refused to screen the film in protest at being deprived of their customary exclusivity period.
Johnny Depp is due in town later in the week for the premiere of Scott Cooper's “Black Mass,” in which the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star plays Irish-American mobster James ‘Whitey' Bulger. - AP
