Cannes: Lionsgate Nabs U.S. Rights to ‘Genius’ With Colin Firth

On the first official day of the Cannes film festival, Lionsgate has nabbed U.S. rights to hot project Genius, starring Colin Firth.

Directed by Michael Grandage, the film, also starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Guy Pearce, has been considered one of the hottest projects going into the festival.

The film, now in postroduction, is an adaptation of A. Scott Berg‘s biography about renowned book editor Max Perkins, who worked with Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Kingsman: The Secret Service actor Firth stars as Perkins, while Law plays Wolfe.

John Logan wrote the script for the Oscar-bait film, which some sources compare to The King’s Speech and The Imitation Game. James Bierman, Grandage and Logan produced while executive producers include Deepak Nayar, Nik Bower, James J. Bagley, Berg, Ivan Dunleavy, Tim Bevan, Steve Christian and Arielle Tepper Madover.

CAA, which put together the financing, repped domestic rights and brokered the deal. FilmNation is handling international sales.