Focus Features confirmed on Thursday that it had acquired domestic and select territories to Lisa Cholodenko’s Sundance selection The Kids Are All Right as the festival entered the final stretch.
The company did the deal - believed to be in the $4.5m range - with Cinetic for North American rights, and acquired rights in the UK, Germany and South Africa from the film’s international sales agent Inferno, which has also closed deals with Hopscotch in Australia and New Zealand, Swen in Latin America, and Seven Films in Greece.
Thoughts now turn to other rough and polished diamonds that have caught buyers’ eyes. A possible deal on Vincenzo Natali’s Midnight entry Splice has been percolating for several days, while I’m Pat Tillman has won admirers including the Weinstein Company, which has been courting Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary for a day or two.
Other titles in play as buyers consider a permutation of distribution arrangements include the 3D documentary Cane Toads: The Conquest, Catfish, a popular one from the start, The Company Men, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil,TheKiller Inside Me, Animal Kingdom, The Perfect Host, The Extra Man, and HIGH School.
The Kids Are All Right, which stars Annette Benning and Julianne Moore as a couple whose young son enlists the help of his teenage sister to track down their biological father, triggering a complicated new chapter in everyone’s lives. Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson also star.
Economic uncertainty and the intimate scope of many entries has made this one of the most cautious Sundances in years, however there may yet be a late rally as the festival nears its finale.
Last weekend Lionsgate kicked off the domestic market when it paid in the region of $3.2m for the Ryan Reynolds buried alive film Buried.
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