Lionsgate Officially Gets Cooties

Lionsgate has acquired North American rights to SpectreVision and Glacier Films’ highly anticipated feature film, Cooties, at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the Company announced today.

The comedic horror film marks the feature film directorial debut for directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion. It is written by Leigh Whannell (co-creator of Saw and Insidious) and Ian Brennan (co-creator of Glee), and stars Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Leigh Whannell, Jorge Garcia and Nasim Pedrad.  Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Elijah Wood, Steven Schneider, Georgy Malkov, and Tove Christensen produced the film with Leigh Whannell, Ian Brennan, Hayden Christensen, Seth William Meier, Vladimir Poliakov, Sarik Andreasyan and Gevond Andreasyan as executive producers.

Jason Constantine, Lionsgate’s President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, said, “We’re thrilled to have another Leigh Whannell project back at Lionsgate to build on our 10-year history together during which we released seven films in the SAW franchise that he co-created.  Leigh and Ian, along with all the filmmakers and cast of COOTIES, have created a project that we found ourselves laughing out loud throughout and we cannot wait to share it with moviegoers!”

“I couldn’t be more excited that COOTIES has found a home with Lionsgate, a decade after they beautifully handled the release of SAW,” said Leigh Whannel.  “I’m thrilled to be working with them again, and can’t wait to introduce COOTIES to the world with their help.” Ian Brennan added, “Glee and SAW just had a baby! And its name is COOTIES.”

Producer and star, Elijah Wood, said, “Even before we set forth on the production of COOTIES, we’ve always seen the ideal home for this film to be at Lionsgate.  We could not be more thrilled!”

In COOTIES, a substitute teacher at a new school experiences the worst first day imaginable when he discovers that an outbreak of a mysterious virus is transforming the students into rampaging tykes.  The film hilariously illustrates that sometimes kids can literally turn into little monsters. Going into Sundance, COOTIES was already being talked about as one of the most highly anticipated films of the Festival.

COOTIES premiered at midnight this past Saturday, January 18th, at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City.  The film’s sold-out premiere screening took place ten years to the day after SAW made its midnight premiere at the same theatre as part of Sundance’s midnight lineup in 2004. Shortly after that screening, Lionsgate announced it acquired SAW and went on to distribute six sequels as part of the most popular long-running horror franchise in history.