Margaret is a film that we were really starting to think wouldn’t ever see the light of day. Despite boasting a quality cast in front of the camera and a talented filmmaker in You Can Count On Me’s Kenneth Lonergan behind it, the drama has been caught up in legal issues and release date delays for years. But now the trailer has arrived online over at Apple.
Lonergan began making the movie for Fox Searchlight back in 2005, and while the shoot seemed to go smoothly, nothing has since then. The movie got bogged down in the editing room and sparked two lawsuits about costs and delivery.
The wrangling has overshadowed the movie itself, which features Anna Paquin, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Jean Reno, Matthew Broderick and more, and tells the story of Lisa, a 17-year-old school girl whose life starts to fall apart when she witnesses a fatal bus accident and deals with the guilt of lying to the incident inspectors. Her fears that she’s partly responsible for the accident bubble to the surface and start to take their toll. Eventually, she comes into conflict with the bus driver (Ruffalo) and tries to soothe her feelings by kicking off an affair with a teacher (Damon).
Martin Scorsese and his usual editor Thelma Schoonmaker have been working on a final cut for the film, which hits US cinemas on September 30. There’s no word on when – or even if – it’ll arrive on screens over here.