Fox Searchlight has acquired the Sundance coming-of-age story "The Way, Way Back," the directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
The film debuted at Sundance on Monday and immediately drew significant interest from buyers. Searchlight brought the rights for North America and several other territories and will distribute it in the summer.
Faxon and Rash, who won an Academy Award for writing "The Descendants," also wrote this coming-of-age tale, which follows 14-year-old Duncan on summer vacation with his mother, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's daughter. Initially unhappy, Duncan befriends Owen, the manager of a local water park. Owen helps Duncan relax and start to fit in with the people around him.
Liam James plays Duncan, while Toni Collette plays the mother and Steve Carell her boyfriend. Sam Rockwell plays Owen.
"Nat and Jim have crafted a uproarious coming of age story and it is great to be reunited with them," Searchlight presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley said in a statement. "The amazingly pitch perfect cast never misses a beat and was well deserving of the standing ovation the film received yesterday."