SUNDANCE: Jeff Nichols' 'Take Shelter' Finds Home at Sony Pictures Classics

Grove Hill Productions

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights to Take Shelter, a Sundance competition film written and directed by Jeff Nichols.

Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon and Kathy Baker star in Take Shelter,  about a husband and father in a small Ohio town whose terrible dreams of a coming storm set him on an obsessive path.

"This film promises to be ‘a can't miss’ in the marketplace," said SPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard. "With Shotgun Stories, Jeff Nichols instantly became a major independent filmmaker. His screenplay for Take Shelter is emotional, deep and timely. Michael Shannon is one of America's great actors and Sarah Green is one of the finest producers we’ve worked with."

Tyler Davidson produced the film under his Strange Matter Films banner, along with Sophia Lin. Sarah Green, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Colin Strause, Greg Strause, Richard Rothfeld, Chris Perot and Christos Konstantakopoulos are executive producers.

CAA, which reps Nichols, Shannon, Chastain, Whigham and the Strause brothers, packaged the film's financing and negotiated the deal with SPC, which also acquired rights for Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

SPC has been very active pre-fest -- as it has been in previous years -- with active pursuit of Morgan Spurlock's latest documentary, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, also screening at Sundance this year. The New York-based indie distributor has acquired Sundance films Animal Kingdom, An Education, Frozen River and Baghead in recent years.