The first trailer for ‘Begin Again’, formerly named ‘Can a Song Save Your Life’, has just been released by The Weinstein Company. The film is directed by Dublin-born John Carney, whose previous film ‘Once’ was an Academy Award-winning musical, and whose next feature,
‘Sing Street’, is filming in Dublin this summer.
‘Begin Again’ generated much excitement at the Toronto Film Festival last September when the film initiated a bidding war over rights to the film. The international rights were eventually sold to The Weinsten Company Exclusive Media for $7 million with a $20 million P&A commitment for US rights. Weinstein Co will release the film in the USA in July.
The film is scheduled to close the Tribeca Film Festival (read the full story here) where it will screen alongside Irish features ‘The Stag’ (renamed ‘The Bachelor Weekend’ for the American market) and ‘The Canal’ as well as Irish shorts ‘Scratch’, ‘Rubaí’ and ‘Incident Urbain’.
The trailer portrays Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced label executive, finding hope again upon hearing the music of a singer-songwriter called Greta (played by Keira Knightley). Greta herself is feeling down after being dumped by her boyfriend, played by Maroon 5’s Adam Levine in his film debut, when he gets a record deal. Hailee Steinfield, Catherine Keener, James Corden and music artist CeeLo Green also star in the feel-good musical comedy.
The official trailer debuted on ‘Today’ this morning. Watch it here: