SECONDHAND LIONS
Year: 2003
USA: New Line Cinema
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Michael Caine, Robert Duvall, Haley Joel Osment, Kyra Sedgwick, Nicky Katt, Josh Lucas, Christian Kane, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kevin Haberer, Michael O'Neill, Deirdre O'Connell, Eric Balfour, Adam Ozturk, Jennifer Stone, Mitchel Musso, Marc Musso, Joe Stevens, Charles Sanders, Morgana Shaw, Adrian Pasdar, Dameon Clarke, Jason Douglas, Rick Dial, George Haynes, Harvey Allen, Eugene Osment, Jace Pitre, Travis Willingham, Brian Stanton, Kanin J Howell, Billy Joe Shaver, Dennis Letts, Daniel Brooks
Director: Tim McCanlies
Country: USA
UK: 108 mins
USA Rated: PG for thematic material, language and action violence
UK Certificate: PG contains some mild action. To obtain this category cuts of 21 seconds were required. The cuts were 'cuts for category'. Distributor chose to remove sight of illegal weapons (flick knives) and instructional use of knife, and violence for PG. A '12A' uncut was available to the distributor.
USA Release Date: 19 September 2003
UK Release Date: 24 October 2003
Synopsis
For 14-year old Walter (Haley Joel Osment), his great uncles' farm in rural Texas is the last place on earth he wants to spend the summer. Dumped off by his mother, Mae (Kyra Sedgwick), in the middle of nowhere with two crazy old men and the promise that she'll come back for him, Walter doesn't know what to believe in.
Eccentric and gruff, Hub and Garth McCaan (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine) are rumored to have been bank robbers, mafia hit men and/or war criminals in their younger days. The truth is elusive, although they do seem to have an endless supply of cash. But Walter begins to see a new side to his great uncles when he stumbles on an old photograph of a beautiful woman hidden away in a trunk and asks Garth who she is.
Little by little, through stories spun against the backdrop of the dusty Texas night, an amazing story comes to life via Walter's vivid, colorful imaginings - a tale set in a long-ago exotic, mysterious place where men rode stallions and fought with swords; where beautiful princesses tangled with treacherous sheiks; and where the two unlikely heroes lived an adventure most people only dream of.
Whether true or not, the uncles' tales become a doorway to a staggering new world for the boy to live out their adventures. They also give Walter something true to believe in - a world where honor and valor mean more than money and power, and a place that, real or not, belongs only to him. Likewise, in telling their stories to their nephew, Hub and Garth begin to see their own lives with new eyes.
Over one unpredictable Central Texas summer in the early 1960's, everything in the lives of this new family of strangers is about to change forever.
SECONDHAND LIONS is written and directed by Tim McCanlies, who wrote the screenplay for the acclaimed animated film, THE IRON GIANT.