PAWN SACRIFICE

A PalmStar Media Picture

At the height of the Cold War, brilliant but volatile American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer challenges Soviet world champion Boris Spassky for the world title. As their 1972 “Match of the Century” becomes a proxy battle between superpowers, Fischer’s escalating paranoia threatens to consume the genius that brought him to the brink of history.

Starring Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Directed by Academy Award winner Edward Zwick (THE LAST SAMURAI, BLOOD DIAMOND) from a screenplay by Academy Award nominee Steven Knight (PEAKY BLINDERS, EASTERN PROMISES) and a story by Knight and Academy Award nominees Stephen J. Rivele & Christopher Wilkinson (ALI).

Daniel Shafer brought Knight onto the project and developed the screenplay with Knight, Tobey Maguire and producer Gail Katz (THE PERFECT STORM) for Sony Pictures.

Independently financed and produced, the film had its world premiere as a Gala Presentation at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically by Bleecker Street in 2015. It was the newly launched distributor’s first acquisition.