ThinkFilm buys rights to Roman Polanski doc

ThinkFilm has bought the domestic theatrical and DVD rights to the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired from HBO, Variety reports.

Filmmaker Marina Zenovich’s documentary was one of the most buzzed-about pictures at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, sparking a bidding war that ended in one of the festival’s first big sales. As previously reported, HBO Documentary Films purchased the film Jan. 20 for nearly $1 million only two days after the festival began, and The Weinstein Company snapped up international rights soon after.

Zenovich’s film chronicles the life of Academy Award winning director Roman Polanski, a life with more than its fair share of tragedy. His parents were sent to a concentration camp after the Germans invaded his childhood town of Krakow, Poland. Polanski narrowly eluded his parents' German captors, but his mother later died in Auschwitz. In 1969, his wife, actress Sharon Tate, and the couple’s unborn child were brutally murdered by cult leader Charles Manson and his followers.

Polanski also stirred up a whirlwind of controversy years later after he was accused and convicted of having illegal sex with a 13-year-old girl. He spent 42 days in jail under psychological evaluation, but was released while he awaited his sentence. Before he could be sentenced, however, Polanski fled the country for Paris and hasn’t returned, even to accept his 2002 Best Director Oscar for The Pianist, for fear of being arrested.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired touches on all of these facts, but also on the circus-like media coverage of his trial, and questions from both the prosecution and the defense as to whether justice was served in the judge’s ruling. ThinkFilm’s Mark Urman described the doc as “a stunning indictment of our tabloid-crazed culture.”

Director Steven Soderbergh executive-produced the film, which features interviews with Polanski’s friends, business partners and legal team, as well as archival footage of him at work and with Tate. HBO will broadcast the doc on June 9, and ThinkFilm will begin the theatrical run on July 11.

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