Now this is how you set up a movie.
As the SXFantastic world premiere screening of Kill List was about to roll at midnight last night at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, the packed house was first treated to “Anarchy in the U.K.” at ear-shredding volume. Shortly thereafter, SXSW kingpin and Alamo founder Tim League introduced Kill List director and co-screenwriter Ben Wheatley (Down Terrace).
Bringing Wheatley on stage, League challenged the British director to a 5 v. 5 beer shotgunning competition pitting Americans against Europeans. Among the Stateside contingent was Sony acquisitions exec Scott Shooman, whom THR put on its Next Gen list in 2010 (we knew we were right), and the Euro side included German Summit exec Geoff Shaevitz.
Amid plentiful trash-talking and audience jeering, a beer-slamming no-breaks relay race ensued that devolved into quite a spitting mess. Eventually, the movie itself played, which one attendee, who related this story to me, described as “fucking warped but amazing.” (I wasn’t there.)
I expect The Beaver world premiere Wednesday with Jodie Foster and Anton Yelchin to play out in much the same way.
