Paramount Vantage snagged "Son of Rambow" for $7 million, making it the biggest Sundance purchase so far. The studio also acquired "How She Move" for $3 million; "Teeth," "The Signal," "La Misma Luna," "Dedication," and "Nanking" have also been picked up.
"Son of Rambow," a coming-of-age story set in Britain, tells the story of a boy in a strict religious family whose world changes when he sees "First Blood" and sets out to remake it. The fact that this feel-good Brit-com went for such a high price tag is a bit surprising, since it features no widely-known actors.
"Son of Rambow": they messed with the wrong boy.
"How She Move" tells the story of an inner-city medical student who enters a step dancing competition to raise money for her tuition. Paramount Vantage partnered with MTV films on the purchase.
The Weinstein Company has been busy as well, purchasing "La Misma Luna" (with Fox Searchlight) for $5-$6 million; "Dedication" (with First Look), a rom-com directed by Justin Theroux and starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore, for $4 million; and "Teeth" (with Lionsgate), a taboo and genre busting indie.
Magnolia purchased "The Signal," a sci-fi/horror film about a series of murders provoked by radio, TV, and cell phone waves, for about $2.3 million.
Fortissimo Films bought the international rights, excluding China, for the documentary "Nanking." Said to be inspired by the Iris Chang book "The Rape of Nanking," the doc chronicles the slaughter of more than 200,000 Chinese by the Japanese army during WWII. The right to distribute the film in the U.S. is still up for grabs.
After Dark Films picked up worldwide rights to "Weapons," a drama starring Nick Cannon and Paul Dano about a group of teens who engage in violence during an drug-fueled weekend. After Dark Films paid a cool $1 million for this pick up.
"Once"’s international rights, excluding Ireland, went to Summit Entertainment. The story centers on a vacuum cleaner repairman and a flower lady who make beautiful music together, made on a reported budget of $100,000.
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