Irish Film: Fox Searchlight acquires worldwide distribution for John Crowley’s Brooklyn

Amazing news from Sundance with word that Fox Searchlight has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for John Crowley’s Brooklyn.

The $9m deal covers every territory, with the exception of Ireland and the UK, Canada, and Australia. Fox Searchlight won what became a bidding war after the film premiered to wide acclaim, garnering interest from The Weinstein Compan, Focus Features, and CBS Films.

The story is set in the 1950s, and sees a young woman move from a small town in Ireland to Brooklyn, where she has the opportunity for work, for a future and for love.

The film is an adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel by the equally best-selling British author Nick Hornby. Intermission director John Crowley has gathered an all-star Irish and British cast for the film, that features Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters.

Brooklyn is an Irish/British co-production from Wildgaze Films, Finola Dwyer Productions, Parallel Films and Item 7. Brooklyn was co-financed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and filmed on location in Wexford, Dublin and Wicklow, before the film decamped to Canada to shoot in Montreal.