Focus Features bought the interracial drama Loving, starring Joe Edgerton, Ruth Negga, and Michael Shannon, for North American and other territories including the U.K., Germany and Latin America.
The deal was for nearly $9 million and was announced Saturday at the Berlin Film Fest.
It is the first major transaction for Focus since its February 4 restructuring, which saw the exit of CEO Peter Schlessel.
Footage from the film, directed by Jeff Nichols, premiered as “Midnight Special” on Friday at the festival.
Financed by Big Beach and developed by Raindog Films, Loving is directed by Nichols from his own script. It’s inspired by Nancy Buirski’s Emmy Award-winning documentary “The Loving Story” about Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and African-American woman who fell in love and were married in 1958.
The couple was jailed by the state of Virginia, where they were making their home, and then banished from the state. The couple took the civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor.
It is produced by Ged Doherty and Colin Firth (“Eye In The Sky”), Sarah Green, Buirski and Big Beach’s Marc Turtletaub & Peter Saraf.
Executive producer is Brian Kavanaugh-Jones.
Production companies are Big Beach and Raindog Films in association with Augusta Films and TriState Pictures.
