EXCLUSIVE: I can’t recall a Sundance with this many solid sales at the midpoint of the Park City festival. Netflix is moving toward a deal to pay $8 million for To the Bone, the drama written and directed by Marti Noxon. Starring Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Carrie Preston, Lili Taylor, Alex Sharp and Liana Liberato, the pic premiered Sunday in the U.S. Dramatic section at Eccles.
In a last-ditch effort to battle her severe anorexia, 20-year-old Ellen (Collins) enters a group recovery home. With the help of an unconventional doctor, Ellen and the other residents go on a sometimes-funny, sometimes-harrowing journey that leads to the ultimate question: Is life worth living?
The film is an incredibly personal undertaking for Noxon who makes her feature directing debut after writing and producing for years such TV series as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, and Glee. When she was younger Noxon battled eating disorders for a decade.
The film is produced by Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn, and Karina Miller, and AMBI Media Group principals Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi financed the film and are executive producers. Also involved as exec producers are Foxtail Entertainment’s Anita Gou and Matthew Malek. The deal is being brokered by CAA and WME Global.
Its topical subject matter is ideal for a young demo, to go along with all the other content deals that Netflix has made here. That includes the closing-night film The Incredible Jessica James, as well as a slew of documentaries topped by Monday’s $2 million deal for Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press, and another for Icarus.
