Roadside Attractions, Screen Media Nab North American Rights To ‘Hope Gap’

Roadside Attractions has teamed with Screen Media for the North American distribution rights to Hope Gap, a family drama starring Annette Bening, Bill Nighy, and Josh O’Connor. Oscar-nominated screenwriter William Nicholson directed the film, which will be released in theaters sometime next year.

Hope Gap details the life of a woman, shocked to learn her husband is leaving her for another after 29 years of marriage, and the ensuing emotional fallout the dissolution has on their only grown son, until she ultimately regains her footing, and discovers a new, powerful voice.

The pic, which is based on Nicholson’s Tony Award-nominated play, The Retreat From Moscow, was produced by David M Thompson of Origin Pictures and Sarada McDermott.

Roadside and Screen Media acquired the rights from CAA Media Finance and Protagonist, who has already sold to film in key international territories like Germany/Austria (Tobis), Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (Cloud 9), Australia and New Zealand (Transmission), Scandinavia and Iceland (SF Studios), and China (DD Dream).

The film was financed by Screen Yorkshire, Sampsonic Media, Creative Media, and LipSync. Executive producers are Hugo Heppell for Screen Yorkshire, Nicolas D. Sampson and Arno Hazebroek for Sampsonic, Gavin Poolman, Alex Tate and Peter Gould for CMI, as well as Norman Merry and Peter Hampden for LipSync.

Howard Cohen of Roadside and Seth Needle of Screen Media brokered the rights deal.