MagnoliaPictures and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) have teamed up to acquireNorth American rights to Rodrigo Garcia's Nine Lives, which played as a premiere at Sundance this yearand screened this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Magnoliaplans to release the film theatrically in Sept with subsequent DVD and videodistribution to be handled by SPHE.

Nine Lives follows the experiences of nine separate charactersover a series of single unbroken takes. The large ensemble includes Kathy Baker,Amy Brenneman, Elpidia Carrillo, Glenn Close, Stephen Dillane, Dakota Fanning,William Fichtner, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Holly Hunter, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna,Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Mary Kay Place, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Aidan Quinn,Miguel Sandoval, Amanda Seyfried, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright Penn.

Several of the aboveincluding Baker, Brenneman, Close, Carrillo, Close, Hunter and Sandoval starredin Garcia's debut film Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, another ensemble which debuted in the US onShowtime in 2000.

Nine Lives was executiveproduced by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and produced by Julie Lynn ofMockingbird Pictures.

Graham Taylor of Endeavornegotiated the deal on behalf of the producers. Gary Hirsch and Scott Shoomanrepresented SPHE in the acquisition.Eamonn Bowles represented Magnolia Pictures.

Magnolia, which is a whollyowned subsidiary of Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's 2929 Entertainment, has threeother movies on its current release slate - Christopher Browne's A League OfOrdinary Gentlemen, Alex Gibney's Enron:The Smartest Guys In The Room andthe upcoming J-horror Pulse directedby Kiyoshi Kurosawa.