Sundance Dark Dramedy ‘Bitch’ Lands At MPI Media Group, Will Get 2017 Bow

MPI Media Group has acquired multi-territory rights to writer-director Marianna Palka’s Bitch, the dark dramedy that premiered this year in the Midnight section at the Sundance Film Festival. MPI will now handle international territory sales in Cannes and release the pic domestically later this year under its Dark Sky Films banner.

Palka also stars alongside Jason Ritter in the pic about a woman (Palka) who snaps under the crushing pressures of life and suddenly and assumes the psyche of a vicious dog. Confronted with this unexplainable but inescapable new reality, her philandering, absentee husband (Ritter) is forced to quickly become reacquainted with his four children and sister-in-law (Jaime King) as they attempt to keep the family together during the bizarre crisis.

MPI’s Nicola Goelzhaeuser and Giles Edwards negotiated the deal with ICM Partners and Christopher Tricarico of Tricarico Chavez LLP on behalf of MarVista Entertainment. “Dark Sky Films continues its commitment to supporting the work of female directors, and Marianna Palka’s new film is a brave, uncompromising statement from one of the movement’s newest leading voices,” Goelzhaeuser said.

Added producer Elijah Wood: “Bitch is a totally unique take on a domestic breakdown — intimate, disturbing, tender and incredibly funny. If ‪A Woman Under The Influence and Mr. Mom had a baby, it would be Bitch.”