MAN ON WIRE

Year: 2008
USA: Magnolia Pictures
UK: Icon Distribution
Cast: Philippe Petit, Jean-Louis Blondeau, Annie Allix, Jim Moore, Jean-François Heckel, Barry Greenhouse, David (aka Donald) Foreman, Alan (aka Albert) Welner
Director: James Marsh
Country: USA / UK
USA & UK: 94 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for some sexuality and nudity, and drug references
UK Certificate: 12A contains one scene of moderate sexualised nudity
USA Release Date: 12 August 2008 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 25 July 2008 (Limited Release - New York)
UK Release Date: 1 August 2008 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

On 7 August 1974 Philippe Petit, a young Frenchman, stepped out on a wire traversing New York's twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings. Despite having been illegally rigged, Petit spent nearly an hour dancing on the wire, until he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and jailed before he was eventually released.

Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit had to overcome a multitude of extraordinary challenges. Ultimately the rigging was done by night in complete secrecy until eventually at 7:15 am, Petit took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan...

James Marsh's (THE KING, WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP), documentary brings Petit's extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as "the artistic crime of the century."