‘Brokeback Mountain’ Getting 20th Anniversary Re-Release This Summer
Focus Features is re-releasing their 3x Oscar winner Brokeback Mountain in celebration of the pic’s 20th Anniversary. Special showings start on June 22 and 25.
Directed by Ang Lee and starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain grossed over $178 million at the global box office. The movie made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival back in 2005 and was an immediate awards contender that season, and a social barrier breaking movie. Brokeback Mountain follows Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal), two young cowboys dispatched to work as on the majestic Brokeback Mountain in the summer of 1963. During their experience, Ennis and Jack are drawn into an unexpected lifelong relationship, filled with love and loss.
Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture. Brokeback Mountain delivered Ang Lee an Oscar win for Best Director, his second Academy Award after taking home one in 2001 for Best Foreign Language Film for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Brokeback Mountain also won an Oscar for Best Original Score for Gustavo Santaolalla, and Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writers Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, who adapted from the short story by Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx. The movie also landed a Best Actor nom for Ledger, Supporting Actor nom for Gyllenhaal and Supporting Actress nom for Williams.
Proulx’s short story “Brokeback Mountain” was originally published in The New Yorker in 1997, winning the National Magazine Award for Fiction. In 2000, a slightly extended version was published in Proulx’s short story collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
There will be forthcoming merchandise and other connected initiatives connected with the anniversary of Brokeback Mountain.
Focus Features re-released Joe Wright’s 4x Oscar nominated Pride & Prejudice last weekend to a notable $2.8M at 1,393 theaters. That movie’s lifetime cume stands at $43.3M stateside.
