Focus Features International will commence sales at EFM this week on the Jeremy Renner investigative journalist thriller. The domestic division will release the film in the US.

Michael Cuesta will direct the story of the late investigative journalist Gary Webb, who published a series of articles about the alleged link between proceeds from a cocaine ring in Los Angeles and the CIA-backed Contra rebels.

Webb was denounced by the US Administration and parts of the media for his Dark Alliance articles in the mid-1990s and was subsequently found dead in 2004 from gunshot wounds to the head. A coroner’s office returned a verdict of suicide.

Peter Landesman wrote the script and Renner and Don Handfield will produce through their production company The Combine alongside Scott Stuber.

Renner identified the material and CAA is putting financing together and packaging the project. CAA and WME jointly represented rights.

The project was initially set up at Focus Features’ parent company Universal.