Paramount Picks Up Sundance Hit Like Crazy For $4 Million

A number of movies have been basking in excited buzz in the first few days of this year's Sundance, but none of them made it translate into a lucrative studio pickup until Like Crazy, the young love drama from director Drake Doremus that premiered less than 24 hours ago to the kind of swooning adoration that makes Sundance hits. According to Entertainment Weekly the deal was made after one of those legendary all-night Sundance bidding wars, with Paramount walking away the victor after paying $4 million for the film. Starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, the artsy and heartfelt drama follows two young lovers who fall for each other in Los Angeles and cope with the distance when her student visa runs out and she has to return to her London home.

I was at last night's completely packed press screening of Like Crazy, and while I was a little more lukewarm on the film than the ecstatic buzz might suggest-- "Baby Blue Valentine" was my initial glib remark-- I can see a lot of people getting swept away in the film's heady emotion and remarkable evocation of that rush of early love. I'll have a review of Like Crazy up at some point, and look for the film at a theater near you at some point in the next year.