Todd Wiseman Jr.‘s “The School Duel” is a near-future dystopian thriller that, at first, you may think you’ve seen before. The indie film, by its very concept, evokes “The Hunger Games” and “Battle Royale.” But it has a rawness to it, plugged deeply into America’s own current epidemic of school shootings and the gun culture that makes them possible, that also makes it absolutely unlike those movies.
IndieWire exclusively debuts the first teaser for “The School Duel” below. The thriller stars then 13-year-old Kue Lawrence as a troubled seventh grader, Samuel Miller, recruited into the Florida governor’s shocking solution for mass school shootings: The School Duel of the title, which pits teenage boys against one another in arena combat, wielding AR-15s, shotguns, and other deadly weapons until only one is left standing. Some of the boys have been training for years for the duel. Others are simply deemed to be at-risk of committing school shootings themselves, and this is a twisted safety valve for their violence.
“The School Duel” premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival last September, where it received raves from the French press and won the Prix Canal+. Since then, it has played at the Miami Film Festival and the Sunscreen Film Festival, where it won Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay on April 26 (this writer was on the jury).
Wiseman grew up in Tampa, Florida, before attending the film program at New York University. The 37-year-old lived in New York for many years to launch his film career, directing or producing shorts starring Christopher Abbott and Oscar Isaac. Wiseman also produced the Emmy- and IDA-nominated Netflix short documentary “Long Shot,” which was about the real-life story of how footage from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was used to clear a wrongly accused man of murder. He’s recently moved back to his hometown and filmed “The School Duel” largely around the Tampa Bay area.
“The School Duel” also stars beloved “The Office” alum Oscar Núñez in a decidedly laugh-free role: as the Florida governor who believes he is actually morally righteous in holding the School Duel. A first-look image from the film of him holding an AR-15 went viral on Reddit recently. It also stars Christina Brucato (“The Menu”) in an especially moving turn as Samuel’s mother, rising actor-musician Frankie Midnight as the game marshal, and character actor Michael Sean Tighe (“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”), who recruits Samuel for the School Duel and serves as a kind of twisted mentor to him, as well as actual “Hunger Games” alum Eugenie Bondurant as the principal of Samuel’s school.
But it’s Lawrence, conveying all the menace and pathos of Travis Bickle, who will absolutely astound you. It’s a performance that’s heart-tugging and chilling in equal measure.
Watch the teaser below.
“The School Duel” is currently seeking U.S. distribution and is represented for sales by Anthony Buckner of AMP, who’ll be taking it to the Cannes market for sales.
