Movie Name: Last Days in the Desert (2016)
Director: Rodrigo García
Producer: Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn, Wicks Walker
Writter: Rodrigo García
Star Cast: Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan, Ciarán Hinds, Ayelet Zurer
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Genre: Drama
Release date: 13 May 2016 (United States)
Country: United States
Language: English
Story: Last Days in the Desert is an American drama film about the temptation of Christ, directed and written by Rodrigo García. It stars Ewan McGregor, Tye Sheridan, Ciarán Hinds and Ayelet Zurer. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2015. The limited release date is set for May 13, 2016.
Last Days in the Desert follows Jesus in an imagined chapter from His 40 days of fasting and praying in the desert. On His way out of the wilderness, He struggles with the Devil over the fate of an ordinary family in crisis, setting for himself a dramatic test with distinctly human conflicts.
On February 1, 2014, the cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki told Deadline that he is going to work on a film in the desert with his friend Rodrigo García and Ewan McGregor. He said "It's a tiny little beautiful, extraordinary script that Rodrigo wrote that we’re going to shoot for five weeks." On February 5, 2014 two actors, Ewan McGregor and Tye Sheridan, joined the film cast. McGregor plays the dual roles of a holy man and a demon. The film is written and directed by Rodrigo García, while Division Films and Mockingbird Pictures produced the film. Ayelet Zurer and Ciarán Hinds play the roles of Sheridan's character's parents. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The movie was shot at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the Colorado Desert of Southern California.
The film was awarded the Dolby Family fellowship, a grant that allows filmmakers to finish their sound design and mix in Dolby Atmos. Sound Designers and Re-recording mixers J.M. Davey and Zach Seivers completed the original sound design and mix as well as the Dolby Atmos remix. Skip Lievsay, who won the Academy Award for Best Sound for his work on Gravity, served as a mentor to Davey and Seivers for the Atmos remix.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating based on 13 reviews. On Metacritic, the film achieved an average score of 73 out of 100 based on 5 reviews, signifying "generally favorable reviews".
