Sundance 2022 wrapped just over a week ago, but festival favorites continue to find homes. Utopia has landed U.S. rights to “Sharp Stick,” Lena Dunham’s first feature since 2010 SXSW winner “Tiny Furniture,” and Focus Features, Peacock, and Monkeypaw Productions snagged worldwide rights to “Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.,” Adamma Ebo’s feature debut. Press releases announced the acquisitions.
Utopia plans to release “Sharp Stick,” the story of a naïve 26-year-old caregiver (Kristine Froseth) who has an affair with her married employer (Jon Bernthal), later this year. Jennifer Jason Leigh and “Zola” breakout Taylour Paige co-star in the pic, which Dunham wrote and directed.
“I’ve been so impressed with how quickly Utopia has established itself as a brave and committed voice in independent and experimental film,” said Dunham. “They don’t cower from unusual or divisive work, and they have utter respect for the filmmakers’ voice, and I couldn’t feel luckier to be releasing ‘Sharp Stick’ under their auspices.”
The “Girls” creator is an eight-time Emmy nominee. Up next for the multi-hyphenate is “Catherine, Called Birdy,” a film adaptation of Karen Cushman’s children’s novel set in 13th century England.
Peacock will stream “Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul” day-and-date with Focus’ theatrical release later this year. The comedic satire sees Regina Hall (“Support the Girls”) playing the first lady of a Southern Baptist megachurch that’s being rocked by a scandal involving her husband (Sterling K. Brown).
“I was raised Southern Baptist during the height of booming megachurch culture, and I kept finding myself within this tug of war between what was being preached and what actions were being shown,” Ebo told us.“The complex emotions that came from my desire to both leave it all behind and cling to the aspects of organized religion that I find beautiful and inspiring continued to sit right in the pit of my stomach, so I decided to get it out the best way I know how — write.”
Other women-directed features that secured distribution after world premiering at Sundance this year include Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love,” a documentary charting the love story of two French scientists, and Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a psychological thriller about a woman who suspects she’s being stalked.
