Sony Pictures Classics announced today that its golf film The Phantom of the Open, starring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance, Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins and BAFTA Award nominee Rhys Ifans, will open in New York and Los Angeles on June 3, with a wider release in additional markets set for the following weeks.
The film from director Craig Roberts will open against IFC Films’ horror-thriller Watcher, starring Maika Monroe, an Untitled WB Event Film, Fabrication Films’ crime thriller Frank and Penelope, Blue Fox Entertainment’s Eiffel and a title called Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story.
The Phantom of the Open is based on the book of the same name by Simon Farnaby and Scott Murray. It follows Maurice Flitcroft (Rylance), a dreamer and unrelenting optimist who managed to gain entry to The British Open Golf Championship Qualifying in 1976 and subsequently shot the worst round in Open history, becoming a folk hero in the process. It made its world premiere at the 65th BFI London Film Festival last year.
Farnaby adapted the screenplay for the film, which is a co-production between Water & Power Productions and Baby Cow Productions, and was produced by Kate Glover, Nichola Martin and Tom Miller. Christine Langan and James Swarbrick exec produced alongside Cornerstone Films’ Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder, Ingenious Media’s Peter Touche and Christelle Conan, Mary Burke for the BFI and BBC Film’s Rose Garnett and Emma Duffy. The film was developed by the BFI, having been funded by the National Lottery, BBC Film, the BFI and Ingenious Media.
Also coming up for release via Sony Pictures Classics is The Duke, a comedy starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren which heads to theaters on April 22.
