One of the best films of last year which won’t hit theaters until this year is Garth Jennings’ Son of Rambow.. The film premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and was quickly snagged by Paramount Vantage.. I was lucky to be able to see the film not even 24 hours ago..

From Garth Jennings, the director of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes a magical movie about friendship and the discovery of filmmaking at a very young age.. Will is the eldest son of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family, and is forced to abide by a strict moral code which doesn’t allow him to listen to music or watch movies or television.. Will somehow becomes involved with the school’s biggest misfit troublemaker and thief, Lee Carter.. Set in the early 1980’s, and partly inspired on events from Garth’s childhood, Son Of Rambow is the title of a movie made by two little boys after watching First Blood ( Rambo ) on a bootleg VHS tape..

Will Proudfoot ( Bill Milner ) and Lee Carter ( Will Poulter ) have nothing in common besides being 11 years old.. Shy, lonely Will belongs to the Plymouth Brethren religious sect that makes no allowances for such worldly distractions as television or movies.. Lee is the class hellion, an aggressive kid who probably spends more time in detention than in class.. But a chance encounter between the two leads to an unlikely friendship and a burgeoning partnership as junior auteurs in Garth Jennings’ hysterically funny, yet terrifically sweet homage to childhood and movies in the wonderful Son of Rambow..

Jennings was only 11 himself when the original Rambo movie, First Blood, came out, and the writer / director who would go on to co - found the Hammer & Tongs video outfit and to direct the lively big - screen adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, pays tribute to the influence Sylvester Stallone’s violent action hero had on his life.. When Will accidentally watches a pirated video of First Blood, he is entranced, imagining himself as the ” Son of Rambow..” That fits in perfectly with Carter’s plan to make a movie to enter into a young filmmaker’s competition.. He recruits Will as both actor and stunt man in a series of dangerous gags, any one of which looks like it might lead to Will’s death by misadventure..

There is more, of course, such as the way the project sets Will on a collision course with his family’s religious beliefs, to the consternation of his widowed mother, Mary ( Jessica Stevenson ).. Carter, too, has family troubles, with a neglectful, globetrotting mother and an older brother resentful of his babysitting role.. Then there’s Didier ( Jules Sitruk ), the older French exchange student - the coolest kid in school - who catches wind of the project and decides he wants to be part of it, to Will’s delight and Carter’s disgust..

What is readily apparent in all of this is that Jennings remembers exactly what it was like to be a movie - mad kid.. Will and Carter’s adventures may be exaggerated, but there is also the ring of truth in the idea of these little boys making like pint - sized Cecil B.. DeMilles as they mount their own epic.. The friendship that develops between the pair plays true, as well; for as different as they are, each is isolated, both at home and at school.. Beneath their disparate surfaces, they have everything in common..

This was supposed to be Jennings’ feature debut, but it turned out to be easier to finance the much bigger Hitchhiker’s Guide than this more modest affair.. That under - appreciated first effort was a lot of fun, but Son of Rambow is the superior film.. Money might buy bigger toys, but it can never replace heart, and that is something this terrific comedy has in abundance..

Unless you were at Sundance in 2007, I’m sure you’re asking, what delay? Son of Rambow, the fantastic indie movie that originally debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2007, is finally making its way to theaters, a whole 16 months after its debut.. The film was bought at the festival a year ago for around $8 million.. It was originally slated for release in late 2007, but got bumped, and has only recently been confirmed for May this year.. Like all Sundance movies, this one has a story, a story about problems with distribution and problems with rights.. I’m happy that it’s finally coming out and I’m very glad that people will have the chance to see the movie, but this story must be told..

Hengameh Panahi of the French company Celluloid Dreams came to their rescue and via pre - sales was able to cover their $8 million budget.. However, the biggest issue with the film is obviously the use of plenty of Rambo: First Blood footage, which is entirely necessary to tell the story.. Carolco Pictures owns the official rights to Rambo, but the French company StudioCanal bought their entire library and is the one that needs to actually license out the clips.. Before the film’s Sundance premiere, StudioCanal had agreed to license the clips, but not without some additional unresolved intellectual copyright issues.. And additional talks with Optimum Releasing for distribution in the UK broke down before anything could be finalized..

The film was sold to Paramount Vantage during the festival for a reported amount of around $7.5 million.. StudioCanal promptly filed a lawsuit immediately after claiming that ” the movie exceeded its clip deal and infringed upon its intellectual property, and asserted a prior claim on the U.K. rights..” Eventually the judge threw out everything except the distribution issue, which was left for the studios to resolve themselves outside of court..

Within the last month, Vantage has finally reached a compromise with StudioCanal, selling part of the UK rights to StudioCanal’s Optimum Releasing.. In essence, Optimum won over the ability to put it out earliest and in the film’s home territory, releasing it in the UK wide starting in April.. In turn, Paramount Vantage will put it out via a platform tiered release starting on the 2nd May in the US.. StudioCanal had also dropped their objections over the use of clips from First Blood as part of the agreement..

At this point in time after everything has been resolved, it would make sense for Vantage and Optimum to give it a full four months of time to market and promote it, especially given that the newest actual Rambo movie has already hit theaters.. Whether releasing Son of Rambow on the same day as the comic book flick Iron Man and the very first day of the summer movie season is a good idea has yet to be determined.. But the one thing that is certain is that the studio loves this movie and is fully supportive of it, as Paramount Vantage’s president Nick Meyer confirms, ” Everything we did, we did because we love the movie and we want to get it out as soon as we can..”

What this essentially came down to was a battle for money.. Paramount Vantage is expecting it to play best in the UK, as anyone would, and thus was hoping to keep their control over that territory so they could make the money if it hits big.. Instead, the resolution is now that Optimum will handle the UK and Paramount Vantage will take the rest of the world.. They’re crossing their fingers, as am I, hoping that it will break out just like Juno or Napoleon Dynamite did.. And given how great of a film Son of Rambow actually is, it could possibly happen, especially in the premium early summer spot..

Son of Rambow hits theaters on the 2nd May 2008..