Malkovich is already generating Oscar buzz for his work leading Martin McDonagh’s new comedy
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NEED TO KNOW
- Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 3
- The comedy from writer-director Martin McDonagh earned an enthusiastic 13-minute standing ovation
- Also at the premiere were Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Leslie Bibb and cast members Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas
John Malkovich‘s new movie is inspiring applause, tears and Oscar buzz.
Wild Horse Nine (in theaters Nov. 6), Martin McDonagh’s new comedy starring Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Parker Posey, earned a 13-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival at its Thursday, Sept. 3 premiere.
PEOPLE can report that enthusiasm for the film was palpable as Malkovich, 72, fought back tears. The audience, after laughing audibly throughout the screening, shouted praise at the cast and crew.
Credit: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty
Video captured by The Hollywood Reporter and shared to social media showed Malkovich and Rockwell chatting and laughing amid the ongoing applause.
Also in attendance were cast members Posey, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas. McDonagh, 56, was joined at the premiere by his partner, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Rockwell, 57, counted partner Leslie Bibb among his many adoring fans on the carpet.
Wild Horse Nine follows two CIA officers (played by Malkovich and Rockwell) who are dispatched from Santiago, Chile to Easter Island amid rising tensions that led to the country’s 1973 coup d’état.
“Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies,” an official Searchlight Pictures synopsis reads, Malkovich’s character meets a pair of students played by Di Girolamo and Salas, which “threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.”
Credit: Searchlight Pictures/Diego Araya Corvalán
McDonagh’s 2017 Oscar winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and 2020 hit The Banshees of Inisherin also premiered at the famed Venice fest.
At a press conference held earlier on Thursday, Malkovich indicated that, decades into his screen career, his passion for acting hasn’t wavered. “I’m pretty much doing, and I’ve been doing what I love my whole life, and I plan to carry on doing that,” the two-time Oscar nominee said. “I don’t plan to retire because I think they will retire me when it’s time. That seems to be the natural course of things.”
Asked about potential awards buzz ahead, Malkovich responded, “It’s a very nice thing, but the nicest thing is that the film gets attention and the film has several terrific performers and it’s beautifully written and beautifully directed and that’s what matters the most to me.”
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Wild Horse Nine is in theaters stateside on Nov. 6.
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