EXCLUSIVE: Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler’s feature Radium Girls has been snapped up by Juno Films, which is taking all North American rights and English-speaking territories. The pic, which made its world premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, will open April 3 at the Quad Cinema in New York followed by a national rollout.
Starring Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Joey King and Little Women‘s Abby Quinn, Radium Girls follows teen sisters who dream of Hollywood and Egyptian pyramids as they paint luminous watch dials at the American Radium factory in New Jersey. When Jo (Quinn) loses a tooth, Bessie’s (King) world is turned upside down as a mystery slowly unravels. She discovers a corporate cover-up and, in a radical coming-of-age story, Bessie and the Radium Girls decide to take on American Radium. The national sensation following the case of the Radium Girls ultimately led to significant and lasting impact in the area of workplace health and safety and the study of radioactivity.
Radium Girls marks the feature directorial debuts of Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated producer Lydia Dean Pilcher and filmmaker Ginny Mohler, who co-wrote the feature with Brittany Shaw. Pilcher produced the film along with Emily McEvoy.
“At its heart, the Radium Girls’ story is an inspiration for people everywhere to question the facts we take for granted,” said Pilcher and Mohler. “It’s as relevant today as it was in the 1920s.”
Grace and Frankie’s Lily Tomlin serves as EP along with Jane Wagner, Harriet Newman Leve, Jayne Baron Sherman and Willette Klausner. The movie already has won the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Award. Radium Girls is a Cine Mosaic production in association with Double Play Connections, Schaefer Sisters, Probo Productions, and Creative Instinct.
“Radium Girls is a powerful retelling of a dark chapter in American history that illuminates what it takes for the powerless to stand-up to power,” said Elizabeth Sheldon of Juno Films. “We are proud to add this film to our roster of films by and about women.”
Said Tomlin and Wagner: “Radium Girls is a celebration of everyday women finding their strength in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Joey King and Abby Quinn deliver stand-out performances that explore the intimate lives of their characters and what it took for these women to piece together the obscured elements of wrongdoing in order to understand the scope of a larger injustice.“
King is repped by UTA, Industry Entertainment and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman. Quinn is repped by CAA and Rebecca Kitt & Associates.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.