Film Acquisition Rundown: Mubi Buys Philippe Garrel’s ‘Lover for a Day,’ FilmRise Picks Up ‘Women Who Kill’ and More
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Mubi has acquired the U.S., U.K. and Ireland rights to Philippe Garrel’s “Lover for a Day” (“L’Amant d’un jour”), which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and won the SACD prize from the French Writers and Directors Guild, shared with Claire Denis’ “Let the Sunshine In.”
The third and final installment of Garrel’s trilogy on love, after “Jealousy” and “In the Shadow of Women,” the film stars Garrel’s daughter Esther Garrel in her first leading role in one of her father’s films. The movie follows a young woman who returns home after a devastating breakup to find her father living with a new girlfriend her own age. “Lover for a Day” will have its exclusive streaming premiere on Mubi following the conclusion of the theatrical run.
– FilmRise has acquired the worldwide VOD and digital rights to Ingrid Jungermann’s comedy-thriller “Women Who Kill,” which had its World Premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. The Film Collaborative will release the film theatrically. “Women Who Kill” tells the story of commitment phobic Morgan and her ex-girlfriend Jean, locally famous true crime podcasters, who suspect Morgan’s new love interest is a murderer.
“I wanted to make a film that took my appreciation of classic film genres — romantic comedies, mysteries, and a dash of horror — and twist it up into something that resembles a heightened version of my own life experience,” Jungermann said in a statement. Written and directed by Jungermann, who also stars in the movie alongside Annette O’Toole, Ann Carr, Sheila Vand, Shannon O’Neill and Deborah Rush, “Women Who Kill” won the award for Best Screenplay, U.S. Narrative Feature Film at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
– Netflix has acquired the worldwide rights to Olivia Milch’s coming-of-age comedy “Dude,” starring Lucy Hale, Kathryn Prescott, Alexandra Shipp and Awkwafina, Deadline reports. Milch wrote the screenplay for the film, based on a story by Kendall McKinnon. The story follows four girls during their last two weeks of their senior year in high school, and deals with the difficult emotions stirred up by graduation.
– RLJ Entertainment has acquired the U.S. rights to the thriller “The Limehouse Golem.” Based on the novel “Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem” by Peter Ackroyd, the film was written by Jane Goldman and directed by Juan Carlos Medina. “The Limehouse Golem” stars Bill Nighy, Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. The movie premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
The city of London is gripped with fear as a serial killer – dubbed The Limehouse Golem – is on the loose and leaving cryptic messages written in his victim’s blood. With few leads and increasing public pressure, Scotland Yard assigns the case to Inspector Kildare (Nighy) – a seasoned detective with a troubled past and a sneaking suspicion he’s being set up to fail. Faced with a long list of suspects, including music hall star Dan Leno (Booth), Kildare must get help from a witness who has legal troubles of her own (Cooke), so he can stop the murders and bring the killer to justice. RLJ will release “The Limehouse Golem” in theaters and On Demand on September 8, 2017.
– FilmRise has acquired the North American rights to Ramona S. Diaz’s documentary “Motherland.” The film will be released theatrically in the summer of 2017 via The Film Collaborative, and will have its television premiere on PBS’s POV series in the fall of 2017.
“Motherland” takes place in one of the world’s largest and busiest maternity hospitals in the Philippines. Diaz follows three women as they navigate through the severe conditions of giving birth there—from jam-packed delivery rooms to overflowing corridors where babies are misplaced and then found. “Motherland” had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where director Ramona S. Diaz won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Commanding Vision. The film went on to screen at the 2017 Berlinale in the specialty Forum section.
– Imagination Worldwide has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for the 2017 South by Southwest (SXSW) Narrative Feature Audience Award winner “The Light of the Moon.” Jessica M. Thompson’s feature debut centers around Bonnie, played by Stephanie Beatriz, a successful New York City architect who struggles to regain intimacy and control in her life after her world is irrevocably changed when she is sexually assaulted during an evening out with friends. The film co-stars Michael Stahl-David, Conrad Ricamora and Catherine Curtin.
“Watching the news, has there ever been a more vital time for a film to face our rape culture head on?” Michelle Mower, CEO of Imagination Worldwide, said in a statement. “When I first saw ‘The Light of the Moon’ at SXSW, I thought it was the most raw, honest portrayal of life post-sexual assault that I had ever seen. Stephanie Beatriz’s performance as Bonnie is beautifully nuanced and real. Her story will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater.”Imagination will release the film theatrically in the United States and Canada during the fourth quarter of 2017. IWW will then coordinate a college campus tour and worldwide streetdate for DVD and VOD with international distributors.
– Film Movement has acquired the U.S. rights to “Jasper Jones,” the latest feature by Rachel Perkins. Adapted from the best-selling novel by Australian author Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones is the story of Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 14, living in a small town in Western Australia. The film stars Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Levi Miller, Angourie Rice, Dan Wyllie and Aaron McGrath.
Jasper Jones will be released by Film Movement this winter, and will have its North American premiere as the closing night film of the Museum of the Moving Image’s “Film Movement: A 15th Anniversary Celebration,” screening on Sunday, July 2 at 7:00pm in the museum’s Redstone Theater.
– Freestyle Digital Media has acquired the U.S. rights to the high school comedy “Sadie’s Last Days on Earth.” The comedy tells the story of high school student Sadie Mitchell (Morgan Taylor Campbell), who is convinced the world is going to end in two weeks. Sadie has created a check-list of things to master before the predicted doomsday, and she has just two weeks to complete it.
Written and directed by Michael Seater, “Sadie’s Last Days on Earth” features an ensemble cast that includes Morgan Taylor Campbell, Clark Backo, Munro Chamber, Richard Hoyos, and Paula Brancati. The film debuts on VOD on June 22, 2017.
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