New York-based productionand distribution company Cavu Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to MatthewBonifacio's comedy-drama Lbs.

The picture concerns agrossly overweight 27-year-old man who leaves his parents' home and implementsa drastic dietary regime following a heart attack. Carmine Famiglietti starsand co-wrote the screenplay with Bonifacio.

Cavu plans to release Lbs., which premiered at Sundance 2004, in early summer2005. This marks the company's third release following Under Hellgate Bridge in 2001 and Sundance 2002 Grand Jury Prize Winner TheHoly Land in summer 2003.

"We are extremely excited tohave acquired an entertaining mainstream indie-film like Lbs., ' Cavu's president of distribution andmarketing Isil Bagdadi said in a statement.

"When we saw this film atSundance we knew it was a special film, and we truly believe that Carmine andMatthew have extraordinary careers in front of them."

'We feel that Lbs. is a break-out film that will move easily from indiehouses to mainstream multiplexes,' Cavu president Michael Sergio added.

"As a small boutiqueindie-distribution company we had to fight-off a number of much largerdistributors in order to land this film. We plan to maximise the release of Lbs. so that ultimately Cavu becomes a destinationdistribution company for other young independent filmmakers.'

Attorney Robert L Seigel ofCowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard brokered the deal on behalf of Cavuwith Ira Schreck and Amy Nickin of Schreck Rose & Dapello and StevenRaphael of Required Viewing Productions for the filmmakers.