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Lightning Entertainment, the Santa Monica-based sales, production and distribution company, has acquired international rights to the hit South by Southwest Film Festival comedy, Gus, starring Michelle Monaghan (Source Code, Gone Baby Gone) Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen, Silent Hill) and Michael Weston (Fox’s “House,” HBO’s “Six Feet Under”), it was announced today by Robert Beaumont, President of Lightning.

The film, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival to rave reviews in March, marks the feature film debut of Jessie McCormack, who directed from her own script.

McCormack is also a producer alongside Kathryn Himoff, Kevin Fitzmaurice Comer and Erik Van Wyck. The film is executive produced by Richard N. Gladstein (Finding Neverland, The Cider House Rules, The Bourne Identity). The deal was negotiated by Lightning Entertainment’s Joseph Dickstein and ICM Partners on behalf of the filmmakers. ICM Partners represents Monaghan and Mitchell and is also...

Jessie McCormack primarily comes from a theater writing and acting background, but after her short film "The Antagonist," put her on the map, she is now debuting her first feature, "Gus." Following the turbulent relationships of two friends after one gets pregnant and promises the other the child, McCormack brings a distinctly human touch to the drama of the film's script, instilling it with poignancy and humor. What it's about: Lizzie can't conceive. Her best friend Andie gets knocked up from a one night stand and offers to give Lizzie the baby. Complications ensue. Tell Us About Yourself: I’m a native New Yorker and my background is originally in theater. I started off as an actor and my dear friend Aliza Waksal, who was also acting at the time, suggested I write something for us both to perform in. It was strange to me that she had made the...