TLA Releasing has acquiredUS and Canadian theatrical and home entertainment rights to Miguel Albaladejo'sSpanish gay parenting comedy-drama Bear Cub (Cachorro).

TLA picked up the picturefrom Media Luna Entertainment on behalf of Star Line Productions and willrelease the film theatrically in late 2004.

Bear Cub centres on a gay man who forms a strong bond with the11-year-old nephew in his charge only for the relationship to be tested by thearrival of the boy's conservative grandmother.

Jose Luis Garcia-PerezasPedro, David Castillo, Elvira Lindoas and Empar Ferrer star. Albaladejoco-wrote the screenplay with Salvador Garcia Ruiz.

"With gay marriage afront-page issue, the release of Cachorro couldn't be more timely," TLA partnerand director of acquisitions Richard A Wolff, who negotiated the deal withMedia Luna's managing director Ida Martins, said in a statement.

"The film also givesrecognition to a new model of the gay male that is generally ignored ingay-themed films - the bear -a mature man who doesn't live at the gym or obsessbefore the mirror."

Cachorro is Albaladejo'ssixth film after such titles as Rancor and Manolito Four Eyes.

TLA Releasing's slateinclude C Jay Cox's Latter Daysand home video releases include Yolanda Garcia Serrano and Juan Luis Iborra's KM.O, Sion Sono's Suicide Club and Miles Swain's The Trip.