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X director: It won’t do tremendous business but it will do careful business

Australian feature film X will get a local cinematic release later this year.

Director Jon Hewitt told Encore, despite the film being finished for over a year the plan was always to give X the time to release internationally first.

The film will be distributed by Potential Films, beginning with November 24 in Melbourne and Adelaide before opening in Sydney December 1.

Hewitt, whose other films include Acolytes and Bloodlust, told Encore: “We always had distribution, but it was a matter of when it would get a release.”

“It’s tougher than it’s ever been to get a non-Hollywood or tentpole film out there, be it tentpole commercial or tentpole art house. X is a film that needs a careful and nurtured release. The one thing I wanted to do was release it internationally first. The fact it recently got to 14 on IMDBs movie metre (a week by week hottest search rating) gives it a certain amount of clout.”

“We’re not Red Dog or The Eye of the Storm, we’re a million dollar movie so we had to look at other strategies and the main one was get it an international reputation first. I’ve always dreamed of trying it before but getting a release internationally is difficult. We’ve punched well above our weight.

“For a film that’s edgy and a little challenging and doesn’t have massive money for P & A, we have to go back to an older style of release, smaller release, carefully timed. It won’t do tremendous business but it will do careful business.

The film, starring Viva Bianca and Hanna Mangan-Lawrence, is about two women, a runaway and a high class escort, plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse around one night in Kings Cross.

The film is produced by Lizzette Atkins and written by Hewitt and his wife Belinda McClory.

Encore visited the Set of X in October of last year.

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