Neon has officially acquired the rights to How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a new heist-thriller by Daniel Goldhaber. The film recently premiered as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform section, intended to uplift new actors, directors, and film talent. Some sources report that Neon’s purchase of the film rights marks Toronto’s first major acquisition.
Originally based on a book of the same name by Swedish author Andreas Malm, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is described by Variety as “part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of direct action as climate activism.” The novel’s film adaptation follows a group of young environmentalists as the group, driven to extreme measures by the rising threat of environmental disaster, hatch a daring plan to blow up an oil pipeline. Featured among the cast are Runaways star Ariela Barer and Euphoria star Lukas Gage alongside Kristine Froseth (Prey), Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant), Jayme Lawson (The Woman King), and Marcus Scribner (Black-ish), among others.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline is the latest work from director Daniel Goldhaber, who previously served as a writer/director for 50 Stages of Fright (2020), Cam (2018), Bad Kid (2013), and The Summer (2012).
‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ After the Toronto Film Festival
How to Blow Up a Pipeline was one of many upcoming films to debut at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival; specifically, on its Platform program, which was unveiled in 2015 to promote and support up-and-coming films and their creators. However, the film’s acquisition by Neon likely comes as a surprise to the film world because, according to Variety, the film market at Toronto has been moving at a “glacial pace”; the main deal before Neon’s new deal was reportedly Focus Features’ pickup of The Holdovers by Alexander Payne.
Neon is no stranger to big-name acquisitions, either, having collected 18 nominations for the Academy Awards and won five of those. Some of their prior films include A Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Titane (2021), and Pleasure (2022). Aside from How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Neon reportedly has four films debuting in Toronto, including the Laura Poitras documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, a David Bowie biopic called Moonage Daydream, Ruben Olstlund’s Triangle of Sadness, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker.
Regarding the new deal with Neon, How to Blow Up a Pipeline creators Goldhaber, Barer, Jordan Sjol, and Daniel Garber released a joint statement, telling Deadline the following:
“When we started working on this movie, Neon was a dream distribution partner. They’ve done such incredible work supporting movies that are on the cutting edge of cinema and are constantly thinking of new, out-of-the-box ways to connect audiences and films. We are so lucky to have found a partner that has so passionately engaged with this project, and we could not be more thrilled to be collaborating with them to bring How to Blow Up a Pipeline to theaters across America.”
How to Blow Up a Pipeline was written, financed, and produced in seven months by Lyrical Media and Spacemaker financing. Though Neon reportedly has a theatrical release planned for the film, a release date has not yet been announced.