Focus Features has picked upworldwide rights to Hany Abu-Assad's follow-up to Paradise Now.

Abu-Assad pitched theas-yet-untitled contemporary drama to Focus and is writing the screenplay.

Senior vice president ofproduction Kahli Small is supervising development for production president JohnLyons.

Paradise Now earned a foreign language Academy Award nominationthis year and picked up a string of awards from the Berlinale and the HollywoodForeign Press Association, among others.

'As Paradise Now showed, Hany is a filmmaker of tremendous compassionand skill,' Focus chief executive officer James Schamus said. 'We arethrilled to be a part of his next project, which is sure to stir even moreinterest and passion than his last.'