Alejandro Amenábar’s “Agora,” which debuted earlier this year in Cannes to critical indifference has surprisingly become a smash hit Spain, where it has sat atop the box office for four straight weeks (apparently they love dull swords and sandals movies that run almost three hours for no good reason).
The film, which we described as a “long-winded, ungratifying portrait of history set in Roman Egypt in 391AD” stars Rachel Weisz as the feminist astrologer and atheist Hypatia, and tells the story of the love triangle that unfolds between her slave Davus (Max Minghella) and Orestes (Oscar Issac; who’s lawyers are very touchy, btw).
While we think the picture, which sort of meanders all over the place is “fucked commercially,” Newmarket Films, who are in the habit of picking up movies nobody wants (see “Creation”) has acquired the rights to the film which they will release in the first half of 2010. This acquisition will slowly help the film, which cost a whopping $60 million, get closer to breaking even at sometime in Amenábar’s lifetime.