On a busy day for domestic acquisition announcements (12), Strand Releasing takes North American rights to Yossi, Freestyle Digital Media and Word Entertainment partner on Loving The Bad Man and Well Go USA Entertainment and Variance Films team up on Tai Chi 0.

Ironbound Films’ Seth Kramer, Daniel A Miller and Jeremy Newberger directed Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr Movie, a documentary about the talk show host and pioneer of trash television.

Magnolia will release in the first quarter of 2013 after svp of acquisitions Dori Begley negotiated the deal with Josh Braun of Submarine.

  • Strand Releasing plans a festival run and early 2013 launch for Yossi following a deal with Films Distribution. Eytan Fox’s follow-up to Yossi & Jagger stars once again Ohad Knoller as a solitary workaholic doctor in Tel Aviv forced to take an eye-opening vacation.
  • Freestyle Digital Media and Word Entertainment will share duties on Loving The Man, a Christian film about a woman who decides to give birth to a child conceived in rape and visits her assailant in prison where an unlikely bond is formed. Word Entertainment will handle DVD sell-through while Freestyle Digital Media will handle all VoD distribution including online and cable, as well as all DVD rentals in the US through Red Box and other outlets on Jul 10. Susan Jackson for Freestyle Digital Media and John Chapman for Word Entertainment negotiated the acquisition.
  • Well Go USA Entertainment and Variance Films will release Tai Chi 0 in North American theatres on Oct 26. Stephen Fung directed the steampunk martial arts tale