What's The Deal? The Sundance Special
Sundance Film Festival 2012 in Park City, Utah has not disappointed so far, with flurries of activity early and often. Here are a few of the recent film and television deals:
- Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions purchased the US rights to Arbitrage, a Richard Gere financial thriller, for about $2 million.
- Entertainment One acquired the North American rights to Wish You Were Here.
- Fox Search Light bought Beasts of the Southern Wild after winning a bidding war against Weinstein, Sony, Focus and a few others. However, Sony and Focus still managed to make a few other acquisitions. Fox also purchased the worldwide distribution rights to The Surrogate for about $6 million.
- Sony Pictures Classics bought the rights to Celeste and Jesse Forever across North America, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Bidding continues for the remaining foreign rights.
- Sony Pictures Worldwide acquired Samuel Goldwyn’s Robot and Frank.
- Focus Features bought Seth Rogen’s newest comedy For a Good Time, Call ….
- IFC Films acquired Liberal Arts and IFC Midnight acquired The Pact, bothwithin North America. Meanwhile, Picturehouse Entertainment and Revolver Entertainment bought the UK rights to Liberal Arts and The Imposter.
- Magnolia bought the North American rights to V/H/S horror film for over $1 million, after a successful bidding war. Apparently, Magnolia has chosen an alternative release schedule for the film by initially releasing it through VOD prior to a theatrical release.
- And, Millenium Entertainment acquired the US rights to Robert De Niro film Red Lights.
On the television side, National Geographic acquired the rights to climate change documentary, Chasing Ice.
A complete wrap up of all of this year’s action at Sundance will follow soon.
