AFM 2012: Lightning Entertainment to Shop 'How to Make Money Selling Drugs'

Robert Beaumont's Lightning Entertainment has acquired all international rights to acclaimed documentary How to Make Money Selling Drugs and will shop the film to foreign buyers at the upcoming American Film Market, which gets underway Aug. 31 in Santa Monica.

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Toronto 2012: Tribeca Film Acquires 'How to Make Money Selling Drugs'

Matthew Cooke, Bert Marcus

From Bert Marcus Productions and directed by Matthew Cooke, the doc features interviews with 50 Cent, The Wire producer David Simon, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Eminem and Susan Sarandon, as well as infamous drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross. 

The film made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, with U.S. rights quickly snapped up by Tribeca Films, which is planning a 2013 theatrical and VOD release.

How to Make Money Selling Drugs presents a candid examination of how a street dealer can rise to cartel lord with relative ease. By blending authentic reportage with pop culture references, the documentary also reveals how public policy and government drug enforcement have struggled to disincentive Americans from dealing drugs.

“This is a uniquely dynamic documentary which is both incredibly entertaining, but also very insightful and profound in the message it delivers,” said Beaumont, who is president of Lightning. “The scope and intelligence of the filmmakers’ examination of the subject is extraordinary.”
 
The acquisition was negotiated for Lightning by Beaumont, vice president of acquisitions Audrey Delaney and consultant Richard S. Guardian; ICM Partners and Lawrence Kopeikin negotiating on behalf of the filmmakers.
 
Lightning’s international sales team is led by Mathilde Epstein and Alexandra Cocean.