Despite horrible reviews including our own, Relativity Media paid a reported $3 million to distribute the comedy vehicle for “The Big Bang Theory” star Melissa Rauch, who co-wrote and stars in the movie about Olympic gymnast Hope Anne Greggory whose career is sidelined by an injury turning her into a bitter sex and drug-addicted woman. When a hot young gymnast (Haley Lu Richardson) threatens to steal Hope Anne’s smalltown glory, she agrees to coach the girl but may be more interested in sabotaging her career.
One of the hottest genre tickets at the festival so far is Robert Eggers’ debut feature The Witch (pictured above), a thriller set in 1630 New England in which a devout Christian couple (Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie) with five children start to experience hardship including the disappearance of their son, forcing them to turn on one another.
It screened for press on Saturday–the first screening turned away so many critics they had to schedule a second screening–and days before its premiere, A24 has grabbed the distribution rights for a reported $1.5 million in their deal with DIRECTV, who will handle VOD.
Lastly (for now), the Australian drama Strangerland, starring Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes and Hugo Weaving, was picked up for distribution by the newly-branded Alchemy (formerly Millennium Entertainment) with its dark tale of parents dealing with the disappearance of their two teen sons in the desert.
Considering how quickly things are selling at this year’s Sundance, I would expect a lot more sales news in the next couple of days.
