Well Go USA picks up Holocaust drama The Optimist for home release
Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired The Optimist, the drama starring Stephen Lang as Holocaust survivor Herbert Heller. The distributor will release the film digitally on 17 November, then on Blu-ray and DVD on 18 December, as reported by Deadline. It is a straightforward home-entertainment deal. Cinemas first, living rooms next.
The film has already played in cinemas. It had a wide release in the United States through Trafalgar Releasing in March. Wide means many cinemas at once, across the country. The gap until November reflects the theatrical window, the period when a film plays only on big screens before moving to home formats.
Heller survived the Terezin and Auschwitz concentration camps. He was still a teenager when he escaped the 1945 death march. He lived through the final months of the Second World War. As an adult, he built a new life in San Francisco.
Lang plays Heller. Elsie Fisher plays Abby, a troubled teenager. The story pairs them in the present. One life looks back on survival. The other faces a difficult youth.
The supporting cast is large. It includes Luke David Blumm, Leah Pipes, Ben Geurens and Ursula Parker. It also includes Slavko Sobin, Stella Stocker, Oskar Hes and Robin Weigert. Together they complete the ensemble credited on the film.
The film was written and directed by Finn Taylor. It was developed and produced by Jeanine Thomas. Thomas met Heller in 2014 before developing the project. She produced the film with Noah Lang. Todd Slater of Convoke Media served as executive producer, a role often linked to financing and sales.
The home-entertainment deal was brokered by Slater and by Doris Pfardrescher on behalf of Well Go USA Entertainment. Pfardrescher is president and chief executive of the company. For viewers who missed the March run, the path is clear. Digital arrives first in November. Discs follow in December.
What makes this stand out is the long road to the screen. A meeting in 2014. A cinema release in March. Now a home release in November and December. Each step extends the reach of Heller's story to a new audience.
