Picturehouse Takes U.K. Rights to Sundance Title The Last Tree (EXCLUSIVE)

Picturehouse Entertainment has picked up U.K. rights to Shola Amoo’s Sundance coming-of-age movie “The Last Tree” from Great Point Media.

The deal was negotiated by Picturehouse’s acquisitions manager, Paul Ridd, and Great Point’s head of sales, Nada Cirjanic, at Sundance, where the well-received film opened the World Dramatic Competition.

Amoo’s (“Dear Mr. Shakespeare”) movie is semi-autobiographical and follows a British-Nigerian boy, Femi, who moves from a white rural community to a diverse and deprived London neighborhood. Femi has to figure out which path to adulthood he wants to take, and what it means to be a young black man in London in the early 2000s.

“The coming-of-age saga that ensues thoughtfully alternates universal adolescent insecurities with urgently specific minority politics,” Variety said in its review.

Related Stories

Reality TV Survived the ’07 Writers Strike. Why Is It Hurting in 2024?

Robert Downey Jr. Turned Down Iron Man Cameo in 'Deadpool & Wolverine' After Reading Scene; Writers Also Had an Idea to Bring the Six Original Avengers Back

Picturehouse has taken all U.K. rights to the film. “We’ve been fans of Shola’s bold, distinctive work for some time now,” said joint managing director Clare Binns. “It was such a thrill to see his new work at Sundance, a beautifully shot, big-screen film full of compassion and empathy.”

Popular on Variety

Developed by Lee Thomas and produced through Prodigal together with producer Myf Hopkins, “The Last Tree” was supported by the BFI with National Lottery funding. The BFI’s Lizzie Francke and Great Point Media’s Robert Halmi and Jim Reeve are the executive producers.

“We couldn’t have wished for a better U.K. distribution partner for ‘The Last Tree,’ and we’re delighted that Picturehouse Entertainment will be bringing Shola’s evocative, universal story to a nationwide audience,” Thomas and Hopkins said.

Francke added that Amoo is “a unique voice and a special talent who has created a very moving story, which, although very personal, will connect with audiences around the world.”

Great Point will be continuing the sales effort on “The Last Tree” at the EFM in Berlin.

Read More About:

• Great Point Media,
• Picturehouse Entertainment,
• Shola Amoo,
• Sundance 2019,
• The Last Tree

More from Variety

• 

  ‘Evil’ Creators Robert and Michelle King on Bringing the Show to a ‘Satisfying’ Conclusion, Whether Timothy Is Actually the Antichrist and Leland’s Fate
• 

  The Future of FAST: A Special Report on Free Streaming
• 

  ‘House of the Dragon’ Director Explains Those [SPOILER] Cameos in Season 2 Finale, New Dragons and Rhaenyra and Alicent’s Tense Scene: They’re a ‘Divorced Couple That Still Loves Each Other’
• 

  Rob Lowe and John Owen Lowe on ‘Unstable’ Season 2, What Nepo Babies and the Brat Pack Have in Common, and Why Wrapping ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Feels Like the ‘End of an Era’
• 

  High-Resolution 8K Has Its Places, but TV Might Not Be One of Them
• 

  ‘The Boys’ Showrunner on New Spinoff, Soldier Boy’s Big Role in Final Season and ‘Horrible Coincidences’ in Assassination Storyline

Most Popular

• Channing Tatum Says Gambit Accent Was Supposed to Be ‘Unintelligible’ at Times and He Was ‘Too Scared to Ask’ Marvel for the Costume to Bring…

  

• Ryan Reynolds Was ‘Mortified’ to Cut Rob McElhenney’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Cameo but the ‘Sequence Wasn’t Working’: ‘I Had to Kill a Darling…

  

• Zach Galifianakis Warns Hollywood Endorsements Could Hurt Kamala Harris: ‘I Do Wish the DNC Would Step Back from the Celebrities a Little Bit…

  

• ‘Ted Lasso’ Eyes Season 4 Greenlight With Main Cast Members Returning

  

• Box Office: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Returns to No. 1 in Fifth Weekend as ‘The Crow’ Bombs and ‘Blink Twice…

  

• Denzel Washington Says ‘There Are Very Few Films Left For Me to Make That I'm Interested In’

  

• Dear Beyoncé and Taylor: Thanks for Staying Home. The DNC Benefited From Treating Musicians as Opening Acts, Not Headliners

  

• Chris Hemsworth Plays Drums in Surprise Appearance at Ed Sheeran’s Romania Concert

  

• Kamala Harris’ Speech Was Powerful and Heartfelt, but Trump's Legacy Has Stilted My Joy

  

• ‘Blink Twice’ Ending Explained: What Really Happens on Channing Tatum’s Island?

  

Must Read

• Film

  COVER | Todd Phillips Tells All on Making ‘Joker 2’

  By Andrew Wallenstein 5 days

• Film

  ‘Megalopolis’ Trailer’s Fake Critic Quotes Were AI-Generated, Lionsgate Drops Marketing Consultant Responsible For Snafu

  
• Music

  Sabrina Carpenter Teases and Torments on the Masterful — and Devilishly NSFW — 'Short n' Sweet': Album Review

  
• Film

  Tim Burton on Why the 'Batman' Films Have Changed and How 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' Saved Him From Retirement

  
• Film

  Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Are the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton of the 2020s

  

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXKFjp%2BgpaVfo7K4v46tn55lnJbAtXnTq5yeZaOqu6WtzZycZquYpLmiecCmpqhloJ6wtcHRnp%2BoraOaera3jKugoKCkqHpyfo9saGtvZWuFcA%3D%3D