New UK distributor Crabtree Films has revealed details of its plans for its first theatrical pick-up, Kevin Asch’s Holy Rollers starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Bartha.

The film is set for a 60-screen release early next month.

Holy Rollers (which Crabtree acquired from US sales company Cinetic) is inspired by actual events in the late nineties when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States.

Crabtree, founded last year, is run by Managing-Director Nick McCaffery and Chairman Nigel Regan.

The company was conceived as “predominantly a DVD distributor” with the aim of working mainly with first-time directors. It aims to release up to 20 films a year, some of which will be given a theatrical outing too.

Crabtree’s initial slate includes documentary Josh Whiteman’s documentary Shadow Play: The Making Of Anton Corbijn, and documentary Pianomania, about a piano tuner from Steinway with some very celebrated clients.

The company will also be releasing Alan Butterworth’s debut feature, The Drummond Will, a British comedy about two brothers whose father dies and who find a tramp in the wardrobe with a large sum of cash in a bag, and comedy Whatever Happened To Pete Blaggit? Other recent pick-ups include older Aussie dramas Doing Time For Patsy Cline starring Miranda Otto, John Curran’s Praise and 1977 classic Storm Boy (all picked up from Endemol) and genre titles Vigilante and Survivor (both from IFM).

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