EXCLUSIVE: Hours after making Oscar history on Parasite‘s dual Best Picture and Best International Film Oscar, NEON has closed a deal for the Sundance buzz title Shirley. Deal is for North American rights and went for low seven-figures.
Directed by Josephine Decker from a script by Sarah Gubbins, the film stars Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, and Logan Lerman. Pic tells the story of what happens when a young couple moves in with the famed author, Shirley Jackson, and her Bennington College professor husband, Stanley Hyman. The young couple hopes to start a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley’s next novel.
Pic premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, and premiered Saturday January 25 at Eccles. The film was financed by Los Angeles Media Fund, and produced by Christine Vachon, David Hinojosa, Sue Naegle, Sarah Gubbins, and LAMF’s Jeffrey Soros and Simon Horsman.
Paradigm and UTA Independent brokered the deal, and Cornerstone is selling international.
NEON had a strong Sundance. Tom Quinn’s distribution shingle came into the festival with a pre-buy of the Saoirse Ronan-Kate Winslet-starrer Ammonite, and teamed with Hulu for the festival record breaking $22 million deal for Palm Springs.