UPDATE: 09/10/08: IFC ultimately purchased the domestic rights to Che, not Magnolia Pictures. It will run for one week in December, and then be released in January via on-demand.
Word from the TIFF via the NY Post is that Steven Soderbergh’s $60 million 4-hour-plus Che Guevara biopic, Che, has finally been picked up by Mark Cuban’s Magnolia Pictures for a U.S. theatrical release. Take note: the company has chimed in and called the deal “premature,” though no denials have been issued. If so, we’ll update accordingly.
It’s speculated online by the NYP’s Lou Lemnick and others that Magnolia will release the film—re: not films?—this December to qualify for the Oscar race. [...]

Today, director Steven Soderbergh’s four hour subtitled Che Guevera biopic, Che (presented as two films entitled The Argentine and Guerilla) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Online, critical reception is already momentously loud and divided, in a “Here we go…” way. And as you might expect, the film(s)’s questionable commercial prospects and controversial depiction of the Argentine revolutionary, as played by an uncanny Benicio Del Toro, have some critics waiting it out and chatting about the terrible sandwiches given at intermission instead. However, Cinematical’s Kim Vonyar is incredibly stoked on both films and believes that Soderbergh is a lock for the festival’s top prize, the Palm d’Or…
“Consensus among many of [...]

With the Festival de Cannes kicking off later this week, a bunch of new production photos have surfaced. First up is Steven Soderbergh’s Che, a pair of films (The Argentine and Guerrilla) starring Benicio Del Toro as Argentine revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de la Serna.

The running time for the two films combined is a whopping 268 minutes, or four and a half hours long. Let’s take a look at the newly released official plot synopsis:
PART ONE
On November 26, 1956, Fidel Castro sails to Cuba with eighty rebels. One of those rebels is Ernesto “Che” Guevara, an Argentine doctor who shares a common goal with Fidel Castro - to overthrow the [...]

After college, I kicked it around downtown Miami for a bit. While the city never became the new hipster mecca to replace Brooklyn as the, uh, booming condo industry promised, I did become aware that Fidel Castro has died approximately 1,000 times and that the locals like to celebrate each time like it’s the last time. I’m not sure any man’s exaggerated death has ever caused so much happy yelling and dancing in the streets. I parlay my awe because a few interesting images of Castro from Steven Soderbergh’s ambitious pair of 2008 films about Che Guevara, The Argentine and Guerilla, [...]