EXCLUSIVE: Quiver Distribution has acquired North American distribution rights to the feature take of the Eugene O’Neill play, Long Day’s Journey Into Night which stars 2x Oscar winner Jessica Lange reprising her 2016 Tony-Award winning Broadway role.
Quiver will release the pic on Sept. 25 with a special screening at Film at Lincoln Center on Sept. 14.
The movie reps the feature directorial debut of British theater and opera director, Jonathan Kent, who also directed the 2016 edition of the play on Broadway.
Lange (Blue Sky, Tootsie) plays the emotionally troubled, and addiction-plagued matriarch Mary Tyrone. Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (Pollock) plays her husband James; a self-made man, renowned actor, and failed property magnate. The Tyrone family is completed by Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) as the charming, but wayward and hard-drinking elder son, Jamie, with Colin Morgan (Belfast) as the poetic, bleakly optimistic and consumptive younger son, Edmund – a portrait of O’Neill himself.
“We are thrilled to bring director Jonathan Kent’s remarkable feature debut to U.S. audiences,” said Quiver Distribution Co-Presidents Berry Meyerowitz and Jeff Sackman. “Kent has brought together a powerhouse cast, led by the incredible Jessica Lange to tell O’Neill’s story. Jessica is nothing short of mesmerizing, giving what may be the defining performance of her illustrious career across stage and screen.”
“To translate and adapt what is arguably America’s greatest play to the screen demands, above all, a remarkable cast,” said Kent. “Working with Ed Harris and the brilliant Jessica Lange – who I directed on Broadway in the same role – was an exhilarating experience. They are both as supremely accomplished on screen as they are on stage. The core of the film inevitably has to lie with the portrait of the tragic Tyrone family – these four actors, I believe, achieve this magnificently.”
The movie was produced by Gabrielle Tana, Bill Kenwright and Gleb Fetisov and Redmond Morris. David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Oz the Great and Powerful) adapted the play for screen.
Kent has been nominated for Tony and Olivier awards. His theatre productions have been seen in the West End, Broadway, Dublin and Edinburgh. He has directed opera at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, the English National Opera, St Petersburg, in Paris, New York, Santa Fe, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Between 1990 and 2002 Jonathan was joint Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre, which he co-founded as a full-time producing theatre. His productions included Medea (also West End/Broadway); Hamlet (also Broadway); Richard II; Coriolanus (also New York/Tokyo); Plenty (West End); Lulu (also Washington); Phèdre; Britannicus (also West End/New York); Other theatre work includes Gypsy (West End); Sweeney Todd (West End); Aspects of Love (West End); A Chekhov Trilogy (National Theatre); Good People (Hampstead Theatre / West End); Indian Ink (Hampstead Theatre); House of Games (Hampstead Theatre); Opera work includes Elektra and Die Frauohne Schatten (both Mariinsky, St Petersburg); The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne/Paris/New York); Tosca (Royal Opera House). Kent is currently directing a new musical El Alma Al Aire which will open in Madrid, October 2026.
Lange is repped by Untitled, CAA and attorney Diane Golden, Harris is repped by CAA, Ziffren Brittenham LLP, Foster is repped by Range Media Partners and Eric Suddleson at TS Law Group, Morgan is repped by United Agents & United Talent, Kent is repped by CAA and The Agency.
The deal was negotiated by Larry Greenberg and TJ Smith on behalf of Quiver Distribution with David Gilbery and Naomi George on behalf of BK Studios.
