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EXCLUSIVE: For the second year in a row, a Diane Keaton comedy targeted at a mature audience is the one that has distributors hot and bothered at the start of the American Film Market. At least three studios are bidding for the Zara Hayes-directed Poms, in which Keaton plays a woman who moves into a retirement home and recruits the residents there to form a cheerleading squad.
Keaton stars with Jacki Weaver and Pam Grier. Three minutes of footage and other materials were slipped to studios yesterday and Deadline hears that Lionsgate and MGM are all into it for North American rights. Endeavor Content is selling it along with Sierra/Affinity. A deal is likely before the weekend.
This mirrors last years AFM, when the Keaton-starrer Book Club proved to be the hot title in Santa Monica. That film just crossed the $100 million worldwide gross mark. While it used to be that action stars were the ones driving the deals at AFM, watch for Keaton to once again be at the center of the first big deal on the ground there.
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Deadline
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