Sony Pictures acquired North American and select international rights to The Surgeon on Tuesday following a competitive bidding situation at TIFF. The acquisition covers North America, Latin America, Italy, China, and Hong Kong. WME negotiated the deal on behalf of producers Thunder Road and Tango. Searchlight Pictures was among the competing bidders, according to The Wrap.
The film premiered as TIFF's Centrepiece selection on September 12 and holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Michelle Yeoh plays Eliza, a retired surgeon with 35 years of experience who is abducted by a criminal gang and forced to operate on a patient at an abandoned hospital. When she learns a former colleague orchestrated her kidnapping, she turns her surgical expertise into a means of escape. The cast includes Martin Freeman, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov, and Joseph Mydell.
Directed by Roshan Sethi, M.D., a practicing radiation oncologist at a Boston hospital, The Surgeon is Sethi's first major production following A Nice Indian Boy. Production took place in Dublin. Yeoh trained with Dr. O'Keefe at the Royal College of Surgeons before filming to prepare for the physical demands of the role. 'It was really important for me, so that when I did the movements and all that, it looked real,' Yeoh told The Wrap.
Critics have described the film as a convergence of medical drama and action choreography. For Yeoh, it marks a return to physically demanding genre work, now with the authority of an Oscar win behind it.
