Latest in Rights

Fox 2000 has acquired movie rights to The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Wild, the first installment of a young adult supernatural adventure series by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon. Harper Collins just acquired the series and will publish the first volume in March, 2011. Golden and Lebbon will write the…

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired U.S. and Australia/New Zealand rights to Of Gods and Men, the Xavier Beauvois-directed drama that unspooled in competition at Cannes. Deal was made by sales agent Wild Bunch. Drama is the story of eight French Christian monks who live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a…

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights to In A Better World, the new film by Susanne Bier, the Danish director of After the Wedding. Deal was made by Scandinavian sales company TrustNordisk. Drama is a clash between two Danish families. SPC partners Michael Barker and Tom Bernard just acquired Mike…

How tough has the Cannes Film Festival marketplace been for domestic acquisitions? The deal of the day so far is Magnet Releasing’s U.S. rights acquisition of Rubber, the Cannes Critic’s Week offering about a psychopathic car tire with telepathic powers named Robert. It would be tempting to call the market flat or…

Magnolia Pictures acquired US rights to the Alex Gibney-directed untitled documentary about the downfall of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer. Gibney showed a work in progress version of the film at the Tribeca Film Festival. It chronicles the rise of Spitzer as a law and order attorney general who battled…

EXCLUSIVE: An auction of screen rights for the PlayStation3 game Heavy Rain is coming to a close. I’m told a deal is near with Unique Features, the film shingle started by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne after they exited New Line. Using their own money, Shaye and Lynne posted top bid in an auction held by CAA on behalf…

Magnolia Pictures has bought world rights to Smash His Camera, the documentary about infamous New York City paparazzo Ron Galella. He is the pioneering yet controversial celebrity photographer who is best remembered for the restraining order that Jackie O obtained against his prying camera after he photographed her in…

2ND UPDATE 9:00 PM: Informed sources now tell me the off-network TV rights to The Big Bang Theory went for a record even bigger than first thought: $2+M per episode. The breakdown is TBS paying over  $1.5M and Fox broadcast stations over $500K. What a huge haul for Warner Bros Domestic TV Distribution. UPDATE 5:00…

BREAKING NEWS! 2ND UPDATE 12:40 PM: The subject of today’s Warner Bros/DC Comics lawsuit, Los Angeles copyright attorney Marc Toberoff, just gave me his response. (See below) Original Post Filed 10:26 AM. Updated Writethru 11:30 AM: Today there’s been a shocking development in the Superman copyright litigation. Warner…

The British sales agent is selling international rights to Wickie and the Treasure of the Gods, sequel to last year's top German film. Wickie the Mighty Viking got five million cinemagoers through the turnstiles. Distributor Constantin Film hopes this 3D sequel, due to being shooting on location in Malta and Germany…

Summit Entertainment has acquired most worldwide rights to The Impossible, a film that will star Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, with Juan Antonio Bayona directing a script by Sergio G. Sanchez.  The film is based on a true story that took place during the tsunami that hit the coast of Thailand in 2004.  Summit…

As Deadline told you last night, Summit Entertainment has closed a deal for North American distribution rights to Fair Game, the politically charged film about Valerie Plame, whose CIA status was leaked to journalists by Bush Administration insiders. Naomi Watts plays Plame and Sean Penn plays husband Joseph Wilson…