Ammonite

Source: See-Saw Films

‘Ammonite’

Neon has acquired North American rights to Ammonite, Francis Lee’s follow-up to God’s Own Country in a $3m deal that closed out of Sundance.

Meanwhile a number of titles in Park City are starting to heat up ahead of what industry sources hope will become a sales flurry by the end of the weekend.

See-Saw Films produced Ammonite, which stars Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, who is in the running for the lead actress Oscar for Little Women.

Lee wrote and directed the drama, which takes place in the 1840s and is inspired by the life of the Victorian palaeontologist Mary Anning and a young woman convalescing by the sea. Fiona Shaw and James McArdle also star alongside Gemma Jones and Alec Secareanu from God’s Own Country.

See-Saw Films developed the project, and BBC Films and the BFI are co-financing. See-Saw’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman produced alongside Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, with See-Saw COO of film Simon Gillis, Mary Burke, Rose Garnett, and Zygi Kamasa on board as executive producers.

Neon brokered the deal with CAA Media Finance and See-Saw’s in-house sales arm Cross City Films, which previously sold out international rights. Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions hold select markets, and Lionsgate will distirbute in the UK and Transmission in Australia.