Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, “Lost River,” will open April 10 for a theatrical run in Los Angeles and New York and will also be made available the same day via national digital release in the U.S., Warner Bros. Pictures announced Tuesday.
Sue Kroll, Warner Bros.’ president of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, called the 34-year-old Canadian actor one of the industry’s “most promising young directors.”
“His debut film is a singular vision of stranded people finding connection in a broken world,” she said. “We believe in this film and in Ryan as a director, and are delighted to be working with him in this new role. This is a great opportunity to give audiences the chance to discover this compelling, original work for themselves.”
Dan Fellman, the studio’s president, Domestic Distribution, added: “By capitalizing on the growing variety of film release opportunities, we can better target the right audience and give ‘Lost River’ a bigger and more focused voice than it would have if we put it exclusively in theaters. We are excited to see the result.”
Gosling, whose film will have its North American premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin in March, said the “theatrical and digital release plan provides the best of both worlds.”
“It allows those who are interested in seeing my film in a theater to do so without excluding the majority of people who don’t have access to a specialty cinema,” he said.
Gosling also penned the screenplay and co-produced the film, whose cast includes Christina Hendricks (TV’s “Mad Men”), Saoirse Ronan (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Iain De Caestecker (TV’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”).
Actress Eva Mendes, the mother of Gosling’s recently born daughter, also appears in the movie.
