Sundance Selects announced yesterday that the company is acquiring North American rights to Errol Morris’ highly acclaimed documentary TABLOID. The dark, funny and altogether surreal film was one of the standout hits at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival winning indieWIRE’s critics poll for Best Documentary. The film was produced by Morris regular collaborators Julie Bilson Ahlberg (THE FOG OF WAR, STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE), and Mark Lipson, (THE THIN BLUE LINE, co-produced FAST, CHEAP AND OUT OF CONTROL). The company plans to play the critically acclaimed film at key film festivals before aggressively rolling it out theatrically and on their video on-demand platform in the summer of 2011.
With TABLOID, Errol Morris further redefines and pushes the boundaries of documentary film with the tale of Joyce McKinney and the infamous “Case of the Manacled Mormon.” In 1977, Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney flew to England with a pilot and a bodyguard to abduct the love of her life. Or was it to liberate him from a cult? Joyce, all of the people that cross her path, and the British tabloids help construct an epic RASHOMON-like tale that is as hilarious as it is unbelievable. Part black comedy, part film noir, TABLOID is always surprising and features one of the most captivating characters of Morris’s career.
President of Sundance Selects Jonathan Sehring said, “I’m very happy to continue my relationship with Errol Morris, who continues to bring non-fiction filmmaking to the next level. We have had a long history working together on films like MR. DEATH and the TV series FIRST PERSON. I think TABLOID is not only one of his best films but one of his most enjoyable. We look forward to releasing it into major theaters and on our national video on demand platform where we are confident it will connect with a wide audience.”
“TABLOID is a return to my favorite genre – sick, sad and funny – but of course, it’s more than that,” said Morris. “It is a meditation on how we are shaped by the media and even more powerfully, by ourselves. Joyce is a woman profoundly influenced by her dreams and, in a sense, she was living in a movie long before she came to star in my film. It’s good to be working with Jonathan Sehring and his team again. They are creative and innovative distributors.”