First (Belated) Look: Assassination of a High School President

Assassination of a High School President

I first heard of Assassination of a High School President during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where the movie -- a political/Noir mystery set in a high school -- managed to make something of an impression. Fans of the film were calling it the next Brick (and if you don’t know what Brick is, you should), only two-times as funny. And that was endorsement enough for me.

Well, after Sundance, I waited for the seemingly inevitable theatrical release of Assassination of a High School President to happen, but nothing ever came of it and the film slowly faded from my overcrowded memory until recently, when a trailer for the film and news of its release finally arrived.

Now apparently, Yari Film Group, which owns Assassination, was forced into bankruptcy before they could get the movie into theaters. The resulting legalities involved with bankruptcy court have kept the movie on the shelf in cinematic limbo -- a situation made even worse by the worsening economy and a host of other factors. The latest word: Yari has another bankruptcy hearing in late July and Assassination of a High School President could end up going direct-to-DVD, though many fans of the film feel it deserves to be in theaters.

Moreover, Slash Film’s Peter Sciretta is claiming that the movie’s excellence is totally misrepresented by this trailer. “Butcher job” is the exact term I belief Sciretta uses, however, not having seen the film, I can’t say what the trailer does or does not butcher for sure. Only that it looked pretty good to me.

But judge for yourself: here’s the trailer for Assassination of a High School President:

Bruce Willis as a militant high school principal? Awesome. Like I said before: this film is like Brick, only with more laughs. Let’s hope the bankruptcy issue gets settled and this film gets the kind of release it looks like (and people say) it deserves. I hate it when quality films are left to wither and die as could’ve-been-greats.

Assassination of a High School President

Assassination of a High School President stars Reece Thompson, Mischa Barton, Bruce Willis, Michael Rapaport, Zoë Kravitz, and Luke Grimes. It was written by first-timers Kevin Jakubowski and Tim Calpin and helmed by Brett Simon.

We’ll let you know more on the status of the movie’s release when we hear it. Until then, here’s a bonus: a funny clip from the movie to put the pic above into perspective. Enjoy!