Updated 1:58 p.m. PT Jan. 29
The Weinstein Company has made its first and only acquisition of this year's Sundance Film Festival, acquiring "Lay the Favorite" for VOD, the company confirmed.
The movie, by British director Stephen Frears, stars Rebecca Hall as a stripper turned numbers bookie. The film received decidedly mixed reviews at the festival.
"Lay the Favorite" is based on Beth Raymor's memoir. Raymor left her stripping job in Florida to become a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas. After she becomes an assistant to a professional gambler, she learns that she has a brilliant mind for numbers. When she and her boss's wife have a falling out, she moves to New York, where she goes to work for a bookie.
Rebecca Hall stars as Raymor. The movie also stars Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joshua Jackson and Laura Prepon.
D.V. DeVincentis wrote the screenplay based on the memoir. Anthony Bregman, Randall Emmett, George Furla, D.V. DeVincentis and Paul Trijbits produced.
Updated 3:40 p.m. PT Jan. 26
Sundance Selects Takes 'How to Survive a Plague'
Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights to David France's documentary "How to Survive a Plague," the company said Thursday.
The movie, written by France, T. Woody Richman and Tyler H. Walk, is about a group of mostly HIV-positive young men and women who became activists.
The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power, or ACT-UP, and the Treatment Action Group helped turn AIDS from a death sentence to a manageable condition.
"How to Survive a Plague" includes archival footage from the 1980s, putting viewers in the middle of heated meetings, terrible failures and stunning breakthroughs.
"This is a towering film in the history of cinema about social activism," Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said in a statement. "Its astonishing use of archival material to reconstruct an era of political indifference in the face of an unimaginable health crisis helps to create a new blueprint for modern activists."
France and Howard Gertler produced the movie, which was made in association with the Ford Foundation/Just Films, Impact Partners and Little Punk.
Updated 2:30 p.m. PT, Jan. 26
Entertainment One Acquires 'Wish You Were Here'
North American rights to "Wish You Were Here," which opened the World Cinema Dramatic competition at Sundance, have been acquired by Entertainment One, the company said Thursday.
The movie -- Kieran Darcy-Smith's directorial debut -- stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price and Teresa Palmer.
The psychological thriller sold one year to the day after the movie wrapped filming.
"Wish You Were Here" is about four friends who head off Southeast Asia on vacation -- but only three return home.
