‘Birth Of A Nation’ sets Sundance record after being bought for $17.5 million

Birth Of A Nation Sundance debut draws bid of up to $20 million.

Birth Of A Nation Sundance debut attracts huge bids.

The Birth Of A Nation Sundance debut is quite something as Oscar is already being whispers for a year’s time.

Nate Parker‘s slavery drama The Birth of a Nation has been acquired at the Sundance Film Festival for a record $17.5 million. Fox Searchlight paid the huge amount for the film, which easily beats the previous record which was set by Little Miss Sunshine, which sold for $10.5 million ten years ago.

Comparisons to 12 Years A Slave are being made for the film which The Verge are reporting that Netflix apparently made an offer of $20 million for. The budget of the film is a reported $10 million – so effectively investors are already into profit.

Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Penelope Ann Miller, and Gabrielle Union star in the film, Parker’s passion project that he wrote and directed.

Here’s the plot of the film, as described on the official Sundance site.

When a little slave boy, Nathaniel “Nat” Turner, was taken to meet the Elders in the deep woods of 1800s Southampton County, Virginia, it was determined he would be a prophet. It became evident that the unusually intelligent boy would become able to read, so he was encouraged to study the Holy Bible and be a preacher to his fellow slaves. But when Nat’s master decides to profit from his preaching skills by putting him on an inter-county preaching tour, Nat begins to see the full contours of slavery and is moved to become a different kind of leader.

Based on true events, The Birth of a Nation is the long-awaited story of Nat Turner, the American-born slave who would lead the most successful slave rebellion in American history. Having appeared as an actor in several features at the Sundance Film Festival (Arbitrage, Red Hook Summer), Nate Parker returns to the Festival with this bold, compelling, and deeply inhabited first-time feature—and proves that he is an ascending triple-threat talent.

The film premiered yesterday at Sundance to huge acclaim. Variety said: “Parker’s more conventionally told but still searingly impressive debut feature pushes the conversation further still: A biographical drama steeped equally in grace and horror, it builds to a brutal finale that will stir deep emotion and inevitable unease.”

The film is awaiting a release, but we’ll bring you more news as we get it.