| Silk Road | |
|---|---|
| Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tiller Russell |
| Produced by |
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| Written by | Tiller Russell |
| Based on | “Dead End on Silk Road” by David Kushner |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Mondo Boys |
| Cinematography | Peter Flinckenberg |
| Edited by | Greg O'Bryant |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
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Running time | 112 minutes [1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5.99 million |
Silk Road is a 2021 American crime thriller film, written and directed by Tiller Russell. The film stars Jason Clarke, Nick Robinson, Katie Aselton, Jimmi Simpson, Daniel David Stewart, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lexi Rabe, Will Ropp, Paul Walter Hauser and Alexandra Shipp. It is based on the true story of Ross Ulbricht who develops a website on the Dark net, an act which attracts the attention of the FBI and DEA who send in federal agent Richard "Rick" Bowden, aka "Jurassic Narc", to bring down Ross' empire.
Silk Road was released on February 19, 2021, by Lionsgate.
Detailing the capture of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht by the FBI and DEA agent Rick Bowden, nicknamed the "Jurassic Narc."
In January 2019, it was announced Jason Clarke and Nick Robinson had joined the cast of the film, with Tiller Russell directing from a screenplay he wrote. [2] In May 2019, Cole Sprouse, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Jimmi Simpson joined the cast of the film. [3] In June 2019, Paul Walter Hauser, Katie Aselton and Lexi Rabe joined the cast of the film. [4] That same month, Daniel David Stewart joined the cast of the film, replacing Sprouse. [5]
Principal photography began in June 2019 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. [6] [7]
It was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 16, 2020. [8] However, the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] In December 2020, Lionsgate acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, and set it for a February 19, 2021, release. [10]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 54% approval rating based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Silk Road draws intriguing parallels between its oppositional main characters, but doesn't do quite enough to develop the story surrounding them." [11] According to Metacritic, which sampled seven critics and calculated a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, the film received "generally unfavorable reviews". [12]
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Silk Road was an online black market and the first modern darknet market, best known as a platform for selling illegal drugs. As part of the dark web, it was operated as a Tor hidden service, such that online users were able to browse it anonymously and securely without potential traffic monitoring. The website was launched in February 2011; development had begun six months prior. Initially there were a limited number of new seller accounts available; new sellers had to purchase an account in an auction. Later, a fixed fee was charged for each new seller account. Silk Road provided goods and services to over 100,000 buyers.
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Ross William Ulbricht is an American convicted felon who created and operated the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. The site used Tor for anonymity and bitcoin as a currency and facilitated the sale of narcotics and other illegal sales. Ulbricht's online pseudonym was "Dread Pirate Roberts" after the fictional character in the novel The Princess Bride and its film adaptation.
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