Sony Pictures Classics’ list of potential award winners continues to grow. According to Variety, SPC has picked up the North and Latin American rights to Telluride Film Festival hit, Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station. It’s based on Jay Parini’s 1990 biographical novel about famed Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
The film focuses on the point in Tolstoy’s (Christopher Plummer) life when he decides to renounce all of his wealth in the name of his new religion. His wife, Sofya (Helen Mirren), finds out that her husband’s disciple Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) might have tricked Tolstoy into altering his will and leaving the Russian people all of his assets rather than his family. Sofya grows incredibly angry and desperate to get what’s rightfully hers, but her rage only makes her husband more vulnerable to Chertov’s power of persuasion. In the middle of the battle is Tolstoy’s young assistant, Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), who acts as a pawn for both sides.
With An Education expected to nab some nods as well as Broken Embraces, Coco Before Chanel and foreign film considerations The White Ribbon and A Prophet, it’s going to be a busy awards season for Sony Pictures Classic.
