Bleecker Street has won domestic rights to “Military Wives,” a feel-good comedy with Kristin Scott Thomas, Variety has confirmed.
The pact is one of the first to emerge from a slow market at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. “The Full Monty” filmmaker Peter Cattaneo directed “Military Wives,” the true story of a group of women who form a choir while their husbands are serving in Afghanistan. What starts as a diversion to distract themselves from negative thoughts about their spouses soon propels them to the center of a media frenzy and global movement.
In her review for Variety, Amy Nicholson called the film a “ballad to female unity,” adding, “though their husbands are on a dangerous six-month deployment, the women of this charmer about a camp choir find a reason to sing.”
Acquisitions out of Toronto are coming in dribs and drabs, with no megawatt sales of note now five days into the festival. Apple nabbed Bryce Dallas Howard’s documentary “Dads” for worldwide distribution via Apple TV Plus.
Bleecker Street intends to release “Military Wives” in theaters. Rosanne Flynn and Rachel Tunnard penned the script. The cast also includes Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe”) and Jason Flemyng (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”). Executive producers include Zygi Kamasa, Peter Touche, Tim Haslam, Hugo Grumbar, Josh Varney, Liz Gallacher, Stephen Spence, Emma Berkofsky, Josh Horsfield, Jo Bamford, Orlando Wood, Hana Canter, Emma Willis, René Besson.
The film will be distributed by Lionsgate in the United Kingdom, levelFILM in Canada, and Embankment Films overseas. The deal was negotiated by CAA Media Finance and Embankment Films on behalf of the filmmakers.
Deadline Hollywood first reported the sale of “Military Wives.”
