The Weinstein Company (TWC) and IFC Entertainment havejointly acquired all North American rights to Out Of The Blue, the true story of the New Zealand mass murdererDavid Gray.

IFC will release the film through its First Takeday-and-date label and TWC will handle DVD roll-out through Genius Products.

Out Of The Bluecentres on David Gray who, on Nov 13 1990, shot and killed more than a dozentownspeople in his quiet South Island hometown of Aramoana.

Karl Urban and Matt Sunderland star and Robert Sarkiesdirected and co-wrote with Graeme Tetley. Tim White and Steven O'Meagherproduced and the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ on Air, TV3 and Dendy Filmsco-financed.

Out of the Blue is aSouthern Light and Desert Road Films production and premiered at The Toronto InternationalFilm Festival in September.

'This is one of the eeriest and most riveting films Ihave seen and is definitely a stand out that will have people on the edge oftheir seats in front of both big and small screens across the states,' IFCEntertainment president Jonathan Sehring said.

'To achieve US distribution with two such prestigiouscompanies shows the film has universal themes that go beyond mere depiction ofa dark page in our history,' Sarkies added. 'I'm honoured to be ableto bring this moving true story to a North American audience.'

TWC bought the rights from NZ Film. TWC executive vicepresident of acquisitions Michelle Krumm brought the project to the company.

Genna Terranova, TWC's vice president of acquisitions andEileen Rodriguez, director of acquisitions, negotiated with NZ Film's head ofsales and marketing Kathleen Drumm and business affairs executive James Thompson.Arianna Bocco negotiated on behalf of IFC.