Comedy stars Elijah Wood as sex therapist who goes through puberty at 30-years-old.

Paris-based sales company Elle Driver has clinched world sales on Elijah Wood-starring The Late Bloomer on the eve of AFM.

The comedy, executive produced and financed by Dignity Film Finance (DFF) president Maggie Monteith, is one of the buzz titles of the upcoming market.

“Everyone at Dignity, and the film’s producers, are very excited to be working with Elle Driver for the first time,” said Monteith. “Even though they are a late addition to the Late Bloomer family, they are key to our success. We have every confidence in their abilities, and look forward to lots of good news from the AFM.”

The Late Bloomer stars Wood as a 30-year-old sex therapist with no sexual appetite who discovers a benign tumour has prevented him going through puberty. Once it is removed, his hormones click into top gear. Shooting is scheduled to start in January 2013.

“He is forced to go through an excruciating process of puberty at a point in his life where the changes are as obvious as an erection in a pair of Speedos,” said director Randall Einhorn.

The film is based on an adaptation of Ken Baker’s 2001 personal account, Man Made: A Memoir Of My Body, which has been adapted by Joe Nussbaum, Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgrove.

Jesse Israel of Ineffable Pictures and Heidi Jo Markel of Eclectic Pictures are producing. Brent Emery of Coup d’Etat Films is also producing and Ineffable Pictures founder Raphael Kryszek is on board as executive producer.

“There was a lot of interest around this title and we’re delighted that Elle Driver has managed to secure the world sales and to be working with Dignity on such a funny film,” said Elle Driver co-chief Adeline Fontan Tessaur.

Other new titles on Elle Driver’s slate include Rebecca Zlotowski’s tragic romance starring Tahar Rahim and Léa Seydoux and set against the backdrop of a nuclear reactor meltdown Grand Central and Romanian comedy Of Snails And Men, which is generating interest following its runaway box office success back home.

The Paris-based company will also show first promos for the documentary madmademad. about the colourful former editor-in-chief of Vogue France Carine Roitfeld and her bid to set up a rival magazine; the provisionally entitled Elle S’en Va road movie starring Catherine Deneuve as a betrayed grandmother on the verge of bankruptcy who takes to the road to escape her troubles, and the tough Mexican jail-set tale La Quarta Compañia.

AFM screenings include Of Snails And Men, Toronto buzz title Free Angela And All Political Prisoners, Painless and Capital.

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