Content Media has announced that it has acquired international sales rights to “Pistorius” – a documentary feature about the inspiring, Olympic hero turned convicted murderer, Oscar Pistorius.
Vaughan Sivell (“Mr. Calzaghe”) is directing the film, which is currently in production, and is producing with Sean Richard with Western Edge Pictures and the Gennaker Group. “Pistorius” echoes shades of “Making a Murderer” meets “Senna” – a riveting true-crime story about a beloved sports icon.
At the 2012 Olympics, South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius (aka ‘The Blade Runner’) made history by becoming the first double-amputee sprinter to compete in the Olympics. He was one of the world’s most successful sportsmen, and an inspiration to millions. Not even a year later, on Valentine’s Day in February 2013, Pistorius was arrested and charged for the murder of his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp.
The trial of Oscar Pistorius placed South Africa and its problems under the media spotlight. The talismanic Olympian and Mandela’s Rainbow Nation are almost the same age, having both been born with so many challenges, and achieved so much against the odds. But now Oscar is a convicted murderer, in a country that is riven with segregation, violent crime, and corruption. The film will seek to discover whether the image we have of them both is the truth.
Content’s President of Film, Jamie Carmichael noted, “Oscar Pistorius captured and then broke our hearts. And there’s a danger South Africa will do the same. Vaughan has struck a controversial nerve with his timely investigation of the man, the trial and country behind one of the most complex and compelling stories of our times.” Director Sivell added, “Pistorius’ story has fascinated a global audience and I am very pleased to be working with Content on such an ambitious project. They’ve been hugely supportive of our desire to tell a story of a man and a nation facing the glare of public trial.”
In addition to “Oscar Pistorius,” Content’s impressive international sales slate includes the action-thriller “The Worker,” starring Michael Peña, directed by action director Dan Bradley and produced alongside Jeremy Renner’s company The Combine; the Manolo Blahnik documentary “Manolo”; the Maria Callas biopic “Callas,” starring Noomi Rapace with Niki Caro directing; the supernatural horror “Don’t Knock Twice,” from ‘The Machine’ team starring Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton and Nick Moran; the Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s produced sci-fi feature “Higher Power”; Dan Bush’s supernatural thriller heist “The Vault”; Joel David Moore’s dramedy “Youth in Oregon” starring Frank Langella Billy Crudup, Christina Applegate, Josh Lucas, and Nicola Peltz; the star-studded romantic drama “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,” starring Jason Sudeikis, Maisie Williams, Jessica Biel, Orlando Jones, with Paul Reiser and Mary Steenburgen; the uplifting emotional drama “Life at these Speeds” starring Billy Crudup, Graham Rogers and Tim Roth; and Dennis Hauck’s neo-noir detective thriller “Too Late,” starring Academy Award®-nominee John Hawkes.
