By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The festival favorite is coming to big screens this fall.
Roadside Attractions and Saban Films have announced their acquisition of North American rights to BUDDY, which has played the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival and the Festival Favorites section at SXSW. The movie will open exclusively in wide theatrical release September 4. Directed by Casper Kelly (TOO MANY COOKS) from a script he wrote with Jamie King, it stars Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon and Patton Oswalt. “Set inside a children’s television show gone horribly wrong,” according to the PR, “BUDDY embraces the aesthetic of classic children’s television—complete with catchy songs and familiar tropes—before subverting it with a relentless descent into madness. The result is a one-of-a-kind genre experience that is as wickedly sharp as it is horrifying.”
“It’s an honor to be partnering with Roadside Attractions and Saban Films, two companies that have built reputations for championing bold films,” Kelly says. “The theatrical experience means so much to me personally, and I made BUDDY to be experienced in a theater. I’m thrilled that audiences will get the chance to see the movie in theaters everywhere.”
Roadside Attractions co-presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff say, “BUDDY was everyone’s favorite movie at Sundance because we watched in horror as the familiar became the deranged and comfort food turned to poison. Theatrical audiences are in for a major treat.”
“Casper Kelly is one of the most wildly inventive and audacious filmmakers working today, and BUDDY is a testament to his singular genius,” say Saban co-presidents Jonathan Saban and Shanan Becker. “He possesses a rare aptitude for taking the wholesome nostalgia of our childhoods and flipping it into a brilliantly unhinged, laugh-out-loud nightmare. We are absolutely thrilled to partner with Roadside to bring Casper’s uniquely twisted vision to audiences nationwide.”
