The Paperboy | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Lee Daniels |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by | Lee Daniels Pete Dexter |
Based on |
The Paperboy by Pete Dexter |
Starring | |
Music by | Mario Grigorov |
Cinematography | Roberto Schaefer |
Edited by | Joe Klotz |
Production
company |
Nu Image
Lee Daniels Entertainment |
Distributed by | Millennium Films |
Release date
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Running time
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101 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12.5 million |
Box office | $2,424,372 |
The Paperboy is a 2012 American drama film starring Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman and David Oyelowo. Directed by Lee Daniels, it is based on the 1995 novel The Paperboy by American author Pete Dexter.
The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Kidman's performance.
An idealistic reporter, Ward Jansen (McConaughey), and his younger brother, Jack Jansen (Efron), investigate the events surrounding a murder in an effort to exonerate a man on death row, Hillary Van Wetter (Cusack). Van Wetter has been jailed for the murder of an unscrupulous local sheriff, Thurmond Call. Call had previously stomped Van Wetter's handcuffed cousin to death. Van Wetter is now awaiting execution. The Jansens are helped by Ward's colleague, Englishman Yardley Acheman (Oyelowo), and Charlotte Bless (Kidman), a woman whom Van Wetter has never met but who has fallen in love with him and is determined that he should be released and that they should marry. In prison Van Wetter regularly receives correspondence from her.
Charlotte tries to prove Van Wetter's innocence by requesting the help of Ward and Yardley, who are both investigative reporters from a fictional newspaper that happens to share a name with the real, historic black newspaper, The Miami Times, and are hungry for a salacious story. Ward returns to his hometown to investigate the case but has mixed feelings about returning home to his estranged father, and his father's new girlfriend, Ellen, who distribute The Miami Times in their town. The Jansen brothers dislike their father's new girlfriend. Jack is the paperboy after having been expelled from college for vandalism. His only real friend is the family maid, Anita (Macy Gray), who brought him and Ward up after their mother left them. The movie's plot unfolds as Anita, for a fee, smokes and describes the events to an unseen reporter.