A Sensible Word About ATTACK THE BLOCK’s Distribution

The other day we ran a story about the Twitter debate happening over Attack The Block‘s thick English accents. It was an interesting debate if only because it brought to the fore the question of how dialects and accents impact the way movies play in other countries. But since this Twitter debate (spurred on by a Hollywood Reporter story that came out before Attack The Block even premiered at SXSW), people have sort of come to the conclusion that this excellent movie has no distributor because of the accents.

This is simply not true. I’ve spoken to people close to the process and the question of the accents hasn’t entered the equation at all. The reality is that discussions about distribution are happening and they’re happening at their own pace. There’s a belief among some people on the ground at film festivals or watching from afar that a movie that premieres strongly will be picked up immediately after the screening and that if it isn’t the film’s future is in trouble. The reality is often more mundane than that, though, and not ever sales agent is waiting outside the premiere willing to hand over the film to the first good offer. Sometimes it’s worth it to wait and see what happens.

I don’t know the exact intricacies of the Attack The Block distro negotiations, but I can tell you with confidence that the accents are not getting in the way at all. Although if everybody keeps obsessing about the accents at the expense of talking about how fucking great the movie is, maybe the Twitter chatter could turn into reality.