Paramount Pictures' new specialty division has acquired worldwide rightsto Participant Productions' documentary An Inconvenient Truth which had itsworld premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year.

Davis Guggenheim's film features former US vice president Al Gore in astudy of global warming. The science of global warming is weaved in with Gore'spersonal history and longtime commitment to communicating the need to reversethe effects of climate change.

"This movie is a visually mesmerizing and shocking look at theserious and dire state of our planet" said Paramount specialty divisionpresident John Lesher. "We are very proud to help Al Gore expose theurgency of global warming to the widest possible audience."

"I decided to take part in this documentary because the filmmakersconvinced me that it was the best way to get the word out to as large anaudience as possible, and to convince more people to look at the truth of ourcircumstances. We are recklessly, mindlessly destroying the Earth.As Lincoln said, 'We must disenthrall ourselves. And then we will saveour country.' And our planet," said Mr. Gore.

Laurie David, Lawrence Bender and Scott Z Burns produced the film,Participant's Jeff Skoll and Guggenheim are executive producers.

Jeff Ivers, executive vice president of finance and business affairs,negotiated the deal on behalf of Participant Productions.JeffreyFreedmen, senior vice president of business affairs, represented Paramount'sspecialty division, which plans to release the film May 26.

Participant is the new Skoll-backed production outfit devoted tosocially conscious cinema; its other credits to date include Syriana, GoodNight, And Good Luck, North Country and Fast Food Nation.