Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Rian Johnson's "Brick" in a $2 million deal that was announced Sunday at Sundance. Its the latest deal at a market that was busy with buyers paying big bucks for fest films.

"Brick," honored on Saturday here in Park City with a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision, is a high school fim noir that stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Matt O'Leary, Noah Fleiss, and Richard Roundtree.

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."

By Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

North American rights to Paul Dinello's "Strangers With Candy", a Park City at Midnight presentation here at Sundance, have been acquired by Warner Independent Pictures, the company announced today.

The film is based on the popular Comedy Central show of the same name. It was written by Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert and was produced by Lorena David and Mark Roberts of Roberts/David Films, and by Worldwide Pants Incorporated, David Letterman’s production company, in association with Comedy Central.

[A scene from Paul Dinello's "Strangers with Candy." Photo courtesy the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.]

by Eugene Hernandez

ThinkFilm has closed a deal for Paul Provenza's Sundance American Documentary Competition entry,"The Aristocrats". The comedic doc depicts an impressive array of more than 100 comedians telling a legendarily dirty joke, improvising the material on camera.

The film was conceived by comedians Penn Jillette & Paul Provenza, and also features George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Paul Reiser, and Bob Saget, among others. Jilette and Provenza, executive producers of the film were repped in negotiations by Peter Golden of Golden Entertainment West and Ken Weinrib of Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell and Vassallo who negotiated the pact with ThinkFilm execs Jeff Sackman and Randy Manis.

by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

Marilyn Agrelo's "Mad Hot Ballroom", the opening night film at Slamdance this year, was acquired in a rare deal to close during the alternative festival. Paramount Classics excitedly announced the pact on Thursday after making a play for the movie following a packed Tuesday afternoon showing of the film at The Treasure Mountain Inn on Main St.

"It was the first Slamdance screening I've seen," said Paramount Classics co-president David Dinerstein in a conversation with indieWIRE on Thursday. The Indiewood exec proudly called "Mad Hot Ballroom" the best documentary screening anywhere in Park City this year. Paramount Classics announced that it would release the movie in conjunction with Nick Movies, the film arm of the popular kids cable network, Nickelodeon, its corporate sibling at Viacom.

[Marilyn Agrelo's "Mad Hot Ballroom." Photo courtesy the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival.]

Gaby Dellal's "On a Clear Day", from Sundance's World Dramatic Competition, has been acquired for North American distribution by Focus Features, the company announced today. The film, starring Peter Mullan, is the story of a laid-off middle-aged man who is hoping to swim the English Channel. It is the only British feature screening in the world competition this year.

Dellal directed the film from a screenplay by Alex Rose, it was produced by Sarah Curtis and Dorothy Berwin. Executive producers are Bill Allan, Steve Christian, Lenny Crooks, Emma Hayter, Nick Hill & Andy Mayson.

"Gaby is a very exciting new voice in filmmaking," said James Schamus and David Linde in a statement, "and she's crafted a beautiful film that is also a terrific and rousing crowd-pleaser."

Lions Gate Films has announced its second acquisition in as many days, nabbing worldwide rights (minus UK, Spain and Australia) to David Slade's "Hard Candy". Yesterday the company announced its deal for David LaChapelle's doc, "Rize."

Described in an announcement as, "A risky game of cat and mouse between a teenage girl and an older man, where the tables are turned with shocking results," the "Hard Candy," screening in Sundance's Park City at Midnight section, stars Patrick Wilson and Ellen Page.

U.S. rights to Sundance documentary competition film, "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story", directed by Dan Klores and Ron Berger has been acquired by USA Network, Bonnie Hammer, president of USA Network and Sci Fi Channel announced. USA Network will air the film in April, 2005.

"Ring of Fire," which premiered at Sundance Saturday, is the story of a six-time world champion boxer whose life took a sudden and dark turn. The film is described as a "tender portrait" of a fascinating yet tragic figure in history: the idolized, immigrant boxer who, in pursuit of the American Dream, wound up in the middle of a stunning nightmare after he killed his opponent in the ring -- the first live death in network television history.

In March of 1962, Griffith fought his rival, the then-champion Benny "Kid" Paret in their Madison Square Garden rubber match. Prior to the bout, Paret began to taunt Griffith with the explosive word maricón -- Spanish for "faggot," inflaming Griffith. Television viewers watched as Griffith pounded Paret in the lower left-hand corner of their TV screens. Paret slumped against the ropes, comatose and died ten days later.

"As soon as I experienced the raw intensity of this film, with its heartbreaking portrayal of a deeply flawed hero, I knew we had to have it," said Hammer in a statement. "Its haunting treatment of a world champion's sexuality, the subtexts of humiliation and the fear he had to endure, made me fall in love with it."

by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE

Paramount Pictures has acquired Sundance dramatic competition feature "Hustle & Flow" by Craig Brewer as part of a three-film $16 million package deal with producer John Singleton, the studio announced Sunday. Paramount will release the film in cooperation with corporate sibling MTV this summer. Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein, co-presidents of Paramount Classics, spearheaded the deal with Jeremy Barber, Richard Klubeck, and Jeremy Zimmer of UTA, repping the movie. It is the biggest monetary sale to come out of Sundance since Miramax's reported $10 million acquisition of "Happy Texas" in 1999. The pact involved the top execs at the studio, specialty division Paramount Classics, and MTV. A Paramount spokesperson told indieWIRE that execs at the company including new studio chief Brad Gray, COO Rob Friedman, production president Donald DeLine, marketing president Gerry Rich, and home entertainment president Tom Lesinski, not to mention Viacom co-president Tom Freston and MTV exec VP David Gale were also intricately involved with the pact.

[A scene from Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow." Photo courtesy 2005 Sundance Film Festival.]

Paramount Pictures announced this afternoon a major deal for worldwide rights to Craig Brewer's "Hustle & Flow." The company, which will partner with MTV Films, paid $9 million for the worldwide rights to Brewer's film and will finance two other $3.5 million movies to be produced by John Singleton.

A complete story will be published on indieWIRE.com.

by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Jun Ichikawa's "Tony Takitani," which will have its US premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in the world dramatic competition section, the company announced Wednesday. The deal was negotiated on behalf of Celluloid Dreams by Charlotte Mickie and on behalf of Strand Releasing by co-Presidents, Jon Gerrans and Marcus Hu. Strand plans a theatrical release sometime in May or June of this year in the U.S.

Based on a story by acclaimed writer Haruki Murakami ("The Wind Up Bird Chronicle"), the story involves a lonely illustrator, Tony Takitani, who finds the unexpected love of a beautiful young woman whose affliction is her uncontrollable urge to collect expensive couture clothing. The film stars well known Japanese actors, Issey Ogata and Miyazawa Rie in what Strand describes as "dual roles akin to Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' and is used similarly as a thematic tool."

by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE

New Video's DVD doc label, Docurama, has announced the acquisition of six titles from past editions of the Sundance Film Festival. Set to be released on DVD this year are "The Arthur Dong Collection: Stories from the War on Homosexuality" (it includes "Coming Out Under Fire", "Family Fundamentals", and "Licensed to Kill,"), Abby Epstein's "V-Day: Until the Violence Stops" from Sundance 2004, Carlos Bosch & Jose Maria Domenech's "Balseros" and Robb Moss's "The Same River Twice" from Sundance 2003, Liz Garbus' "The Execution of Wanda Jean" from Sundance 2002, and Allie Light and Irving Saraf's "In the Shadow of the Stars" from Sundance '91.

"The inspiration for Docurama and documentaries on DVD began for us at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where a few of us were standing in line waiting to get into a doc screening. Like so many documentary films at the festival that year, the screening was sold out. Out of that experience came our commitment to bringing the crème of the crop of Sundance docs to the home entertainment market place," said New Video's Steve Savage and Susan Margolin. "Docurama’s previous Sundance doc favorites on DVDs have been well received and are fast becoming ‘must own’ titles and we believe these new titles will only enhance the cache of our catalog."