Nate Parker, known best for his roles in The Great Debater, Pride, and Red Tails has struck gold at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, setting the record for the one-time sale of a feature film, netting $17.5 million in a deal with Fox Searchlight studios for his new slave rebellion film, Birth of a Nation, which he referred to as a battle cry at a Deadline.com Sundance panel.
I want everyone to be challenged — it’s kind of like a battle cry from a filmmaking standpoint. Because yes, we need to deal with pervasive racism in Hollywood, but also in society, so I wanted a film that people could watch and be affected — almost hold them hostage in the theater, where they have to see this images, and they have to see the parallels and the themes that are echoing right now in 2016.”
Parker spent the last 7 years writing the film, but it was made over a blistering 27-day span, with just under a $10 million budget. Several heavy-hitters were in the running for the film, including Sony, Paramount and Netflix, the latter of which offered as much as $20 million for the movie.
No word yet on when Parker’s newest opus will be release to the masses, but for now, Parker is pleased that the news of his record-setting performance will bring more and more awareness to the intentions behind Birth of a Nation.
“I’m swinging a hammer, I wanna break everything. Subvert, subvert, subvert.”
