{"id":41753,"date":"2026-03-20T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/?p=41753"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:11:39","slug":"vertical-acquires-north-american-rights-to-sundance-thriller-the-weight-starring-ethan-hawke-and-russell-crowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/vertical-acquires-north-american-rights-to-sundance-thriller-the-weight-starring-ethan-hawke-and-russell-crowe\/","title":{"rendered":"Vertical Acquires North American Rights to Sundance Thriller The Weight, Starring Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Vertical has acquired <strong>North American rights<\/strong> to <em>The Weight<\/em>, the critically acclaimed thriller that made its World Premiere at the <strong>2026 Sundance Film Festival<\/strong>. The film marks the <strong>directorial debut of Padraic McKinley<\/strong> and will receive a <strong>wide theatrical release on September 18, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41754\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1-660x371.png 660w, https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WWFpvoz3-1.png 1906w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Weight<\/em> stars <strong>five\u2011time Academy Award\u00ae nominee Ethan Hawke<\/strong> (<em>Blue Moon<\/em>) and <strong>Academy Award\u00ae winner Russell Crowe<\/strong> (<em>Nuremberg<\/em>), alongside a strong ensemble including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Julia Jones (<em>Rez Ball<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Austin Amelio (<em>Fear the Walking Dead<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avi Nash (<em>Silo<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lucas Lynggaard T\u00f8nnesen (<em>Borgen<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avy Berry (<em>A Quiet Place: Day One<\/em>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sam Hazeldine (<em>The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The film premiered at Sundance to strong reviews and was subsequently showcased at the <strong>76th Berlin International Film Festival<\/strong>, further cementing its status as one of the year\u2019s standout festival thrillers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Synopsis<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When <strong>Samuel<\/strong> (Hawke) is violently separated from his daughter and thrown into a brutal prison, he\u2019s offered a dangerous deal by <strong>Warden Clancy<\/strong> (Crowe): join a risky mission to smuggle gold out of a remote mine with a volatile crew of inmates \u2014 and earn his freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as the group treks deeper into unforgiving wilderness, the greatest threat isn\u2019t the terrain. <strong>Greed, betrayal, and simmering violence<\/strong> fracture the crew from within, forcing Samuel into a desperate fight for survival. With danger closing in on all sides, he must risk everything to reunite with his child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vertical has acquired North American rights to The Weight, the critically acclaimed thriller that made its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The film marks the directorial debut of Padraic McKinley and will receive a wide theatrical release on September 18, 2026. The Weight stars five\u2011time Academy Award\u00ae nominee Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/vertical-acquires-north-american-rights-to-sundance-thriller-the-weight-starring-ethan-hawke-and-russell-crowe\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41756,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41753\/revisions\/41756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}