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Sundance 2012: ‘The Surrogate’ sparks a bidding war

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‘The Surrogate,’ a drama about a middle-aged disabled man seeking to lose his virginity, is generating intense interest from major players at the Sundance Film Festival.

The movie, written and directed by 65-year-old TV veteran Ben Lewin, has attracted serious interest from at least four distributors, including Fox Searchlight, The Weinstein Co., Lionsgate and Samuel Goldwyn, said a person close to the discussions who was not authorized to talk about them publicly.

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Starring John Hawkes, the film premiered at the festival Monday and received a standing ovation. It cost about $1 million to produce.

If the sale happens, it would mark only the third acquisition of a feature title in a year that had been expected to see a frenetic amount of sales. LD Films previously bought the genre picture ‘Black Rock’ while CBS Films snapped up Bradley Cooper starrer ‘The Words.’

Neither Fox Searchlight nor The Weinstein Co., which have been very active at festivals over the past year, have yet bought a movie at Sundance this year.

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Sundance 2012: A 65-year-old takes on disability and sex in ‘The Surrogate’

--Steven Zeitchik and John Horn in Park City, Utah

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