credit: Sundance Film Festival
Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions have acquired domestic (US) rights to “The Cove,” a disturbingly graphic documentary about dolphins being slaughtered in Taiji, Japan.
To make the “The Cove,” filmmakers used hidden mics and cameras to get footage of Japanese fisherman using sonar to lure dolphins into the cove where they are butchered. The production team was lead by Richard O’Barry (the guy who trained dolphins in “Flipper”) and Ocean Preservation Society co-founder Louie Psihoyos.
The carpetbatter blog at nytimes.com says the film is clearly intended to shock and to mobilize and that “It is not for the weak of stomach, or heart.”
Expect wide distribution and decent marketing: Lionsgate also handled US distribution for “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “Sicko” and “Religulous.” Roadside released “Super Size Me.”
[...] Fried Science has posted a good (i.e. well done, but, yes, positive as well) review of The Cove. I’m curious to see the film and to see how much worse the violence is than, say, the stuff [...]