Crime in the capital

The Life of David Gale is a 2003 crime thriller film directed and co-produced by Alan Parker, written by Charles Randolph, co-produced by Nicolas Cage, and starring Kevin Spacey as the title character, a college professor and longtime activist against capital punishment who is sentenced to death for killing a fellow capital punishment opponent; Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, and Gabriel Mann co-star. The film, an international co-production between the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, was Parker's final film before his retirement, and subsequent death in 2020. Released in the United States on February 21, 2003, Germany on March 13, 2003, and the United Kingdom on March 14, 2003 by Universal Pictures, it received mostly negative reviews from critics and grossed just $38.9 million against its $38 million budget.