The Tree of Life hits UK distribution snag

Earlier this week Empire magazine announced that Icon (Mel Gibson’s distribution company) had plans to open The Tree of Life in the UK on May 4 — fully two weeks before its feverishly anticipated Cannes premiere. On the face of it, that claim sounded dubious and today we’re learning some messy details. Napier’s News digs down to the core issue:

Icon don‚Äôt actually have the rights to the film. Anne Thompson reports from sources that the company initially won the rights by offering a high minimum guarantee, which basically means they agreed to pay the film’s backers a lot of money regardless of how well the film does on the basis that they believed it would be a huge hit, but were now having second thoughts about releasing the film. Possibly because it’s not very commercial?

Icon is taking the matter to court, and that probably means a UK release for The Tree of Life will have to wait until the legal wrangling is over — which could be months from now. None of this has any effect on the previously announced limited US release for The Tree of Life on May 27.