Everest Opens Venice Film Festival With Thrills & Chills
The 72nd Venice Film Festival got off to a thrilling, chilling start with Baltasar Kormakur’s Everest. The 3D drama premiered out of competition at the festival, the first of several high-profile U.S. films playing alongside films by a slew of international superstar directors.
Described by The Hollywood Reporter’s chief critic Todd McCarthy as a “gripping and immersive dramatization of a tragic trek,” Everest follows the real life account of a deadly 1996 expedition by two different climbing teams during one of the mountain’s legendarily brutal storms. Jason Clarke plays New Zealander Rob Hall, an Adventure Consultants guide and the head of expedition summiting Everest at the same time that American mountaineer and guide Scott Fischer, played by Jake Gyllenhall, was helping another team ascend the world’s tallest mountain. The ensemble cast includes Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, and Emily Watson, all who were on hand at the premiere.
The film was shot on location in Nepal in the foothills of Everest, as well as in the Italian Alps. It’s the second time in the last few years Venice opened with a heart pounding spectacle—in 2013 Gravity played on the first night.
Everest premieres in the U.S. on September 18.
Featured image: John Taske (TIM DANTAY) and Lou Kasiscke (MARK DERWIN) in "Everest". Inspired by the incredible events surrounding an attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind.
