London-based The Works International has sold Japanese distribution rights for Lucy Walker’s Countdown To Zero to Paramount Pictures. 

The critically-acclaimed film premiered in Sundance and had its international premiere at Cannes where it screened in the Official
Selection.

The deal was negotiated by Clare Crean for The Works International and Alexei Boltho for Paramount Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group.

Walker’s film was produced by Quentin Tarantino’s long-term producing partner Lawrence Bender, himself a documentary Oscar-winner with An Inconvenient Truth. The film was fully funded by Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media (An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc.) in association with the
World Security Institute.

The deal reunites Paramount with Participant, with whom they worked on the worldwide distribution of An Inconvenient Truth.

The film is closely associated with the Global Zero movement which includes more than 200 political, military, business, faith and civic leaders  - and hundreds of thousands of citizens - working for the phased, verified elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

The movement’s high-profile supporters include Meg Ryan (who promoted the film at the Cannes Film Festival), Queen Noor of Jordan (one of the founders of Global Zero), and Richard Branson. 

Countdown To Zero explores the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of present-day threats and featuring insights from a host of international experts andworld leaders who advocate total global disarmament.  The film has narration by Gary Oldman and music by
Pearl Jam and includes contributions from Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Valerie Plame Wilson and Mikhail Gorbachev.

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