Cannes: Matthew McConaughey’s ‘Sea of Trees’ Sells to Roadside, Lionsgate in U.S.

Gus Van Sant‘s The Sea of Trees, starring Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey, has landed a U.S. home with Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate.

The deal comes just days before Sea of Trees makes its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.                                                                                                    

In the film, McConaughey plays an American who travels to Japan’s famous “Suicide Forest” with the intention of taking his own life after the death of his wife (Naomi Watts). Instead, he decides to help a Japanese man (Ken Watanabe) who has become lost, and the duo set off on a reflective, and sometimes dangerous, journey to find their way out.

Chris Sparling penned the script.

Ken Kao‘s Waypoint Entertainment financed and produced the film. CAA and WME brokered the deal with Roadside and Lionsgate. Bloom, the foreign sales company launched a year ago by Kao and Alex Walton, is handling the film internationally.

Producers are Kao, Gill Netter, Kevin Halloran, F. Gary Gray, Brian Dobbins and Allen Fischer.

Ahead of the festival’s opening night on Wednesday, Lionsgate already has been quite active. Earlier in the day, the distributor took U.S. rights to hot project Genius, starring Colin Firth.