SPC Buys into ‘Get Low’ Legend

Making it two for two on this post-TIFF Monday, Sony Pictures Classics have acquired the rights to Aaron Schneider’s feature debut – a picture that I had little affection for, but this backwoods 30’s dramedy managed to find some strong critical support from Variety and Indiewire’s Anne Thompson and even bud Alex Billington from Firstshowing was charmed. I did like the original premise of the “funeral before death” but didn’t much care for the classical treatment of the period piece. Get Low takes no risks, unless you consider that Bill Murray was added to the line-up. 

SPC will be looking to grab a large segment of the movie going public if they can sell this as a heart-felt comedy with a funny old hermit – they’ll probably pitch/promote this as Robert Duvall’s perf as a worthy candidate for awards season…think 2011.

Based on a true story of a hermit who lived for forty years in the Tennessee woods, Felix Bush (Duvall) decides it is time to plan his funeral. But his funeral will not be any old macabre occasion. Organized by a local undertaker played by Bill Murray and his sidekick played by Lucas Black, the funeral will be more party than memorial and an event to which anyone and everyone will be invited and at which Bush will reveal a long kept secret.