The Sundance Film Festival kicked off yesterday, and while many had wondered whether the current economic situation would mean sales would be slow (as they were last year), it certainly bodes well that the first film sold on the first day. THR reports that Paramount Vantage has bought the worldwide rights to Waiting For Superman, which isn’t even due to premiere until tonight.
The documentary centres on the crisis in public education in the US, with the title referring to the fact that everyone seems to be waiting for somebody to come and sort things out. The film includes interviews with several leaders in the field of education, including philanthropist Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone in Harlem, New York: and Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools.
The sale reunites director Davis Guggenheim with Paramount, as the company also released his Oscar-winning Al Gore documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. The film will his US cinemas in the autumn, although it’s not known when it will reach the UK.