The Sundance Film Festival is in full swing, and that means movie moguls like Harvey Weinstein are out waddling around in the Utah snow snatching up movies they think might make them a quick buck. Saturday Harvey’s Weinstein company got things rolling by buying the worldwide distribution rights to Grace is Gone right after it’s Sundance premiere for a little more than $4 million.

Now if you’re like me, you’re bored to death by Sundance reports. It’s always seems like a bunch of journalists with fat expense accounts desperately trying to justify the money being spent to send them there… and for the most part failing. Most of the stuff they report back on consists of tiny little movies that none of us will ever see, or even care about seeing. So if I pay any attention at all to Sundance, I pay attention to reports like this. Who’s buying what is all that maters to you and me, since these are the only movies we’ll ever have any chance to see anyway.

You will now almost certainly have a shot at seeing Grace is Gone, a heart-wrenching drama about a young father who’s soldier wife is killed in Iraq. To cheer up the kids and avoid telling them the news, he takes a cross-country road trip with his two daughters to an amusement park. John Cusack stars in the film as the young father. It’s written by James C. Strause, who also makes his directorial debut on the film. The script is based loosely on a similar trip Strause took with his brothers as a kid.

When asked what he thought of working with the notorious Harvey Weinstein Cusack used it as an opportunity to plug a different film. He said, “I'm thrilled to be in business with Harvey again. Every time Harvey and I have done something together, it's been a terrific experience. We have a great track record together--and I know what he can do with a movie--so I couldn't be happier to be working with him and The Weinstein Company on GRACE IS GONE. I also just did a film called 1408 with Bob Weinstein for Dimension -- it will come out this summer and I'm incredibly proud of it.” Pluggers gotta plug.

Newly made millionaire James Strause was a little more genuinely elated. He says, “I couldn't be happier. This was a film made with a lot of love and care and it's in the right hands to really get out there and connect with people across the country now. The Weinstein company is the perfect place for this film."