Vertical, Roadside Attractions Acquire Domestic Rights to Naomi Watts Thriller ‘Lakewood’

Drama about a mother running to save her son during an active shooter lockdown premiered this month at TIFF

Lakewood
Sabrina Lantos

Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have acquired the North American distribution rights to “Lakewood,” a thriller starring Naomi Watts and directed by Philip Noyce that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The film is slated for release early next year.

In the film, Watts plays Amy Carr, a woman racing against time to save her child Noah (Colton Gobbo) as authorities place her small town on lockdown due to an active shooter incident. Noyce directed the film from a script by Chris Sparling, who produced with David Bois, Andrew Corkin, Alex Lalonde, Chris Parker, Zack Schiller and Dylan Sellers. Devin Andre, Alex Dong, Theo James, Aaron Kaplan, Tyler Zacharia are executive producers.

“We are thrilled to be back in business together to release Phillip Noyce’s tense and timely thriller ‘Lakewood’ in early 2022,” Vertical’s Peter Jarowey and Roadside’s Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff said in a statement. “We all saw it in Toronto and agreed it would be the perfect collaboration. The combination of Phillip’s storytelling and Naomi Watts’ incredible talent will make a great start to 2022.”

Peter Jarowey negotiated the deal on behalf Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions. UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance and Endeavor Content negotiated on behalf of the filmmakers.

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