According to Kevin Eugene Smith, son of famed photographer W. Eugene Smith, Minamata is going to be released in north America, The US and Canada, starting December 15th.
The film, featuring Johnny Depp, focuses on the industrial poisoning of Japanese fishing communities by the Chisso Corporation in Minamata and the courageous work by acclaimed photo-essayist W. Eugene Smith (Depp) and his wife Aileen Mioko Smith to expose this crime to global audiences during the early 1970s. This work is memorialized in their book Minamata: A Warning to the World.
MGM studios obtained the rights to Minamata, but revealed no plans to release the film.
Now, however, Iervolino and Lady Bacardi Entertainment (ILBE) are teaming up with Samuel Goldwyn Films to give the movie a North American release in theaters.
As it happens, the arrangements for Minamata’s US release come just in time for the film to be eligible for awards consideration. With media outlets around the world saying that this is Depp’s finest performance in his lifetime, awards consideration is a real possibility. That means that Johnny Depp could win an Oscar. So could the film itself.
So, despite the best efforts of those that would seek to bury Depp and subvert his career, his work remains impeccable, and the world has not stopped noticing. Johnny Depp seems to be coming along just fine.
Before you know it, we might even see Depp back as our favorite Pirate one of these days.
Meanwhile, there’s still no word on whether or not Amber Heard has handed all of her devices over to the court to be examined for evidence that she may have tampered with photos of her so-called injuries at the hands of her ex-husband. You know, the bruises that moved around her face one day and disappeared the next.
More as it happens.