After a foray into Hollywood blockbusters with Assassin’s Creed, Justin Kurzel returned to Australia to tell another story of true crime, following his harrowing debut feature Snowtown. True History of the Kelly Gang tells the 19th-century tale of notorious outlaw, bushranger and folk hero Ned Kelly. Starring George MacKay and Orlando Schwerdt as Ned in different time periods, as well as Russell Crowe, Nicholas Hoult, Essie Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, and Charlie Hunnam, the first international trailer has landed ahead of a release next year.
C.J. Prince said in his review, “True History of the Kelly Gang opens with a title card stating that nothing in the film is actually true, a convenient choice for director Justin Kurzel as it lays out his film’s main point from the very start. The film is an adaptation from Peter Carey’s novel of the same name, and the title is meant to be a little ironic. Carey wrote his novel from the perspective of Australian folk hero Ned Kelly writing his autobiography, but the story was full of embellishments and untruths. Kurzel and writer Shaun Grant stick to this idea, throwing in anachronistic choices throughout the late-1800s setting to evoke a punk rock mood, which aligns nicely with Kelly’s own rebellious nature.”
See the international trailer below.
Inspired by Peter Carey’s Man Booker prize winning novel, Justin Kurzel’s TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG shatters the mythology of the notorious icon to reveal the essence behind the life of Ned Kelly and force a country to stare back into the ashes of its brutal past. Spanning the younger years of Ned’s life to the time leading up to his death, the film explores the blurred boundaries between what is bad and what is good, and the motivations for the demise of its hero. Youth and tragedy collide in the Kelly Gang, and at the beating heart of this tale is the fractured and powerful love story between a mother and a son.
True History of Kelly Gang arrives early next year in Australia, U.K., and Ireland, and will be released sometime in 2020 in the U.S. by IFC Films.