During the recent Sundance Film Festival, Summit Entertainment had bought the worldwide distribution rights to Once, the Irish musical that premiered at the festival. Now Summit has sold the film's North American distribution rights to Fox Searchlight. The price was under $1 million -- not bad for a movie that cost about $100K to make. Fox hasn't publicized a possible release date yet, except to say it will be released in 2007.Once was written and directed by John Carney, and won the World Cinema Audience Award for a dramatic film at Sundance this year. James Rocchi caught the film at Sundance and said it "isn't just the standard-issue struggling artist story it could have been, but, rather, a symbol for moving on, daring to be happy, daring to reach out." Once sounds like a charming love story, and hopefully, since a larger distributor like Fox Searchlight has the film, more of us will get the opportunity to see it later this year. Other movies Fox Searchlight bought at Sundance include the Adrienne Shelly film Waitress, Joshua and La Misma Luna (partnering with The Weinstein Company).
