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For the last sixty years, few actors have been as reliable an onscreen presence as Tom Skerritt. Bearded-yet-buttoned-up, handsome-yet-approachable, the 88-year-old has built an accomplished career playing sturdy, steadfast leaders. For decades, Skerritt has been the ideal supporting actor—highlights including M*A*S*H, Alien, Top Gun, and A River Runs Through It. His new film, East of the Mountains, provides a plum leading role of which he makes the most.

Skerritt plays Ben Givens, a retired surgeon still mourning the death of his wife. Against the wishes of his only daughter (Mira Sorvino), Ben chooses to go on a days-long hunting trip with his trusty dog Rex as his sole companion. What his daughter doesn’t know (and what nobody else knows) is that Ben has terminal cancer. In the opening scene he produces his father’s old rifle and considers killing himself. This hunting trip is meant to be the final thing.

Drama based on novel from Snow Falling On Cedars author David Guterson.

Premiere Entertainment Group (Peg) will launch Cannes Marché virtual talks at the Cannes Marché next week on drama East Of The Mountains starring Tom Skerritt and Mira Sorvino.

The star of Alien and Top Gun plays a retired heart surgeon with terminal cancer who gets involved in an adventure when he takes his dog back to his boyhood home in eastern Washington to end life on his own terms.

Sorvino, whse credits include Mighty Aphrodite and The Replacement Killers, plays the daughter who isn’t told of her father’s cancer.

Quiver Distribution has acquired “East of the Mountains,” starring beloved veteran secondary actor Tom Skerritt, seen in “Alien,” “Top Gun,” and “Mash,” in his first lead role where he plays opposite Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino (“Mighty Aphrodite”) and Annie González (“Gentefied”).

Directed by S.J. Chiro (“Lane 1974”), produced by Jane Charles (“Sold”), and written by Thane Swigart (“Furious Angel”), “East of the Mountains” is based on a best-selling novel by David Guterson, author of “Snow Falling on Cedars.”

Quiver distributes to worldwide audiences via VOD retailers like iTunes, Google Play, and Netflix. It has scored some success from theatrical distribution in the U.S. – such as on the summer drive-in release of Kevin James genre movie “Becky,” and “Crisis,” starring Gary Oldman and Evangeline, which it opened in theaters on Feb. 26 nursing to the No. 1 spot in independent box office charts.

For “East of the Mountains,” Quiver plans a Sept.

Oscar and Golden Globe winner Mira Sorvino and Emmy winning actor Tom Skerritt have been tapped to star in a film adaption of the East of the Mountains novel by David Guterson, who wrote the screenplay with Thane Swigart. Sj Chiro (Lane 1974) is directing the piece, which is slated to go before cameras in Seattle and Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington this month.

The story follows a retired heart surgeon and recent widower Ben Givens (Skerritt), who has recently learned he has terminal cancer. Determined to end his life on his own terms, Ben leaves his daughter (Sorvino) behind and sets off on a journey into Washington State’s Columbia Basin, where the people he meets, and the events that unfold, compel him further into life even in the face of death.

Guterson, Jane Charles, Mischa Jakupcak, and Jennessa West are producing East of the Mountains with Stephen G. Hall...