Phase 4 Acquires Lucy Walker docu ‘The Crash Reel’
Phase 4 Films has acquired North American rights to docu “The Crash Reel” from “Waste Land” helmer Lucy Walker.
HBO, which helped finance the pic, will keep U.S. television broadcast rights.
Pedro Kos and Walker penned the script, which Julian Cautherley and Walker produced. Sheila Nevins exec produced.
Phase 4 has an early winter theatrical release planned for the film, which stirred up a nice buzz when it preemed at Sundance. Variety called it a “thoroughly winning” portrait of former pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce, whose 2009 accident while training for the Winter Olympics left him with a traumatic brain injury.
“Crash Reel” follows Pearce’s recovery from injury, and his burning desire to return to the slopes. Pic alternates between footage of gritty snowboard and ski accidents, intimate portraits of Pearce with his family and real-life snowboarding footage from Pearce’s career.
” ‘The Crash Reel’ team is so extremely proud of our movie and we could not be happier for it to be in such brilliant hands with Phase 4 as our North American distributor,” Walker said. “Their amazingly fresh, innovative, and smart approach is a superb fit for this cutting-edge zeitgeisty film with its resourceful and creative team.”
Larry Greenberg and Sam Posner negotiated the deal on behalf of Phase 4 while The Film Sales Company’s Andrew Herwitz repped the filmmakers.
Walker’s other films include docu short “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” and “Blindsight.”
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