BBC Worldwide North America to Rep John Boorman’s Last Film

NEW YORK: BBC Worldwide North America has picked up the rights for Queen and Country, which has been announced as the final film from acclaimed director John Boorman.

The rights are for North America only. Set in England during the early 1950s, Queen and Country follows the life of a man who falls in love with a troubled Oxford student while working as a typing instructor for a stern military sergeant. The movie, which is produced by Merlin Films, is a sequel to Boorman's semi-autobiographical Hope and Glory. It stars Callum Turner, Caleb Landry Jones, David Thewlis and Vanessa Kirby.

Queen and Country debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It also screened at the New York Film Festival earlier this month, and has been chosen for the MoMa Contender 2014, a special screening series taking place in the Big Apple this November.

"John Boorman is an iconic director and writer who has continued to deliver incredible films to the big screen, including the unforgettable Academy Award-nominated Deliverance and Hope and Glory. It is an honor to bring his final film, Queen and Country, to North America," said Soumya Sriraman, the executive VP of film, home entertainment and licensing for BBC Worldwide North America. "This film is an excellent addition to our release slate and solidifies our commitment to bringing some of the best British drama to the big screen."

"I am very pleased that the ace team at BBC Worldwide North America will be taking Queen and Country to the U.S. audience. Hope and Glory was based on my childhood memories of the London Blitz in World War II," noted Boorman. "This one draws on my experience at 18 of conscription in the army where I trained young lads to fight in the Korean War. The military was both brutal and comic. I discovered that falling in love with the wrong girl could inflict more pain than the army. It is also about how the war fractured my family and the struggle to put it back together again."

Kieran Corrigan, producer of Queen and Country, added: "This is a very special film by a truly great filmmaker. It is a story of two young army conscripts, who become friends, who fall in love with quite different young women but who also fall foul of military authority. It all happens in the context of a rapidly changing British society. John combines the drama, the romance and the comedy of the story brilliantly. The fact that the story also recounts in part his personal experience makes the movie all the more special. I am delighted that the highly successful distribution team at BBC Worldwide will be bringing this film to North American audiences. They are an extremely appropriate distributor, not least because John himself started his career with the BBC."