Romantic drama stars Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson.

Learning To Drive

WestEnd Films has acquired international rights to Isabel Coixet’s Learning To Drive, a romantic drama set in New York.

The film, which debuted at Toronto, stars Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson, and is produced by Dana Friedman and Daniel Hammond from Broad Green Pictures.

Clarkson plays a Manhattan writer who takes driving lessons after her husband of 20 years out. Her Sikh instructor (Kingsley) has marriage troubles of his own and the two form a friendship behind the wheel.

The film was written by Sarah Kernochan (What Lies Beneath) and is edited by Martin Scorsese’s long-time collaborator and Oscar winner Thelma Schoonmaker.

Learning To Drive will be distributed in the US through Broad Green Pictures, with a minimum P&A spend of $4m, no later than September 2015.

Madman has acquired Australian rights and Jaguar will handle airline rights.

WestEnd will screen the film and continue international sales at the AFM (American Film Market).

Several territories are currently being negotiated including Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Japan and the Middle East.