Magnolia Pictures Practicing FREAKONOMICS

FREAKONOMICS is coming to the US, and Magnolia Pictures is just the distributor to bring it.  The company announced today it has acquired the North American rights to the film about incentive-based thinking and the human traits affected by it.

Based on the bestselling book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, the film follows case studies, each of which is documented  by a different, documentary film maker.  ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM’s Alex Gibney tackles Sumo wrestling, SUPER SIZE ME’s Morgan Spurlock touches on baby names, JESUS CAMP’s Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing cover underachieving children, and WHY WE FIGHT’s Eugene Jarecki delves into the lowered crime rate of the ’90s.  THE KING OF KONG’s Seth Gordon handles the in-betweens and covers the theme as a whole.

Says Magnolia Pictures President Eamonn Bowles:

As huge fans of the book, the film version of FREAKONOMICS is something that we’ve been excited about ever since we caught wind of it.  The fact that this dream project is being realized by the ‘dream team’ of documentary filmmakers makes this a major film event. We couldn’t be more thrilled.

FREAKONOMICS is set to be the Closing Night Gala film selection at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.