Magnolia Picks Up EXPERIMENTER Starring Peter Saarsgard

Magnolia Pictures announced today they have picked up the North American rights to Michael Almereyda‘s Experimenter starring Peter Saarsgard as Stanley Milgram, creator of the famed Milgram obedience study from the ’60s. The film, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, also stars Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Taryn Manning, Anton Yelchin, Kellan Lutz, John Leguizamo, Anthony Edwards, Josh Hamilton, Lori Singer, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Dennis Haysbert.

Magnolia is planning a theatrical release for Experimenter later this year, take a look below for the full press release.

New York, NY – March 26, 2015 – The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures announced today that they have acquired North American rights to EXPERIMENTER, a new film written and directed by Michael Almereyda.

EXPERIMENTER stars Peter Saarsgard as Stanley Milgram, who shook the world in the 1960s with his famous Yale study on obedience to authority known as the “Milgram Experiment.”

EXPERIMENTER premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it was heralded by critics as one of the best films at the festival. The film features a stellar ensemble cast, including Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Taryn Manning, Anton Yelchin, Kellan Lutz, John Leguizamo, Anthony Edwards, Josh Hamilton, Lori Singer, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Dennis Haysbert. The film was produced by Uri Singer, Fabio Golombek, Isen Robbins and Aimee Schoof. Magnolia is eyeing a theatrical release later this year.

In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted the “obedience experiments” at Yale University. The experiments observed the responses of ordinary people asked to send harmful electrical shocks to a stranger. Despite pleadings from the person they were shocking, 65 percent of subjects obeyed commands from a lab-coated authority figure to deliver potentially fatal currents. With Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram’s Kafkaesque results hit a nerve, and he was accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster. EXPERIMENTER invites us inside Milgram’s whirring mind, beginning with his obedience research and wending a path to uncover how inner obsessions and the times in which he lived shaped a parade of human behavior inquiries.

“EXPERIMENTER is an absolutely fascinating film,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “Michael Almereyda again does a brilliant, imaginative job in illuminating a complex subject.”

“I’ve long been impressed with the great range and quality of titles released by Magnolia Pictures, and I’m excited to see Stanley Milgram’s life and works reach a wider audience through Magnolia’s distribution of this film.”