by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

In the third deal today for a comedy announced today at Sundance, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Roadside Attractions have acquired North American rights to Marcos Siega's Sundance American Dramatic Competition film, "Pretty Persuasion". The company announced Thursday that it will release the movie during the late summer of this year.

Siega's "Persuasion" is the story of Kimberly Joyce (played by Evan Rachel Wood), a mouthy teenager going to an exclusive Beverly Hills private school. As Sundance programmer Geoff Gilmore notes in the festival catalog, "When Kimberly and two classmates decide to pursue a sexual harassment suit against one of their teachers, this roller coaster takes off."

Samuel Goldwyn Films director of acquisitions Peter Goldwyn and Roadside co-president Howard Cohen negotiated the deal for the Prospect Pictures production with Doug Stone & Mitch Smelkinson of Traction Media and Phil Raskind & Christopher Donnelly of Endeavor.

"We at Goldwyn and Roadside loved this twisted and hialrious movie with a star-making turn by Evan Rachel Wood as the ultimate teenaged anti-hero, Kimberly Joyce," Roadside's Cohen told indieWIRE this evening.

Perhaps reflecting the success of the Sundance '04 hit "Napolean Dynamite," and distributors hope of replicating that success, other deals for comedies announced today in Park City include ThinkFilm's acquisition of Paul Provenza's "The Aristocrats" and Warner Independent's deal for "Strangers With Candy."