Lionsgate has acquired the rights to the big winner of this past Sundance film festival, “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire,” according to Variety.
And the company that might merge with Summit Entertainment won’t be working alone, coming along for the ride are the powerhouse marketing teams of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films and and Tyler Perry’s 34th Street Films.
The film stars newcomer Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton with appearances by Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey too. Lionsgate might’ve seemed like an odd choice here, but they’ve been in bed with Tyler’s excuse to print money from African Americans for some time and reupped their partnership last year. And its his and Oprah’s direct involvement and support that convinced them to buy something that wasn’t “Saw.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. The moment I saw ‘Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire,’ I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage other people to see this movie. The film is so raw and powerful — it split me open,” Winfrey said.
About a young, overweight teenager growing up in Harlem with her abusive mother, ‘Push’ won the Sundance Grand Jury prize and Best Supporting actress for actress Mo’nique. ‘Push’ could potentially be this years “Frozen River” which gave Melissa Leo her first Academy nomination for Best Actress.
Let’s hope Lionsgate doesn’t fuck it up. Or even worse, let’s hope they don’t think they bought this. It’s interesting to note, even though Sundance was relatively quiet this year, sales were actually better than they were in 2008 according to Variety.
