{"id":291610,"date":"2026-02-14T21:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/291610\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:34:08","slug":"channing-tatum-gemma-chans-josephine-sells-to-sumerian-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/291610\/","title":{"rendered":"Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan’s ‘Josephine’ Sells to Sumerian Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cJosephine<\/a>,\u201d a psychological thriller starring Channing Tatum<\/a>, Gemma Chan<\/a> and newcomer Mason Reeves, has been acquired for the U.S. by Sumerian Pictures in a competitive seven-figure deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tSumerian, which was founded by Ash Avildsen as an artist-led independent creative studio and recently expanded into film distribution, has committed to a major theatrical release and awards campaign for the film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJosephine\u201d made its world premiere at this year\u2019s Sundance, moving audience members to tears<\/a> and becoming the festival\u2019s first sensation. It\u2019s set to debut internationally at the Berlin Film Festival next week. The heart-wrenching drama is a work of autobiographical fiction from writer-director Beth de Ara\u00fajo about an 8-year-old who witnesses a rape in Golden State Park. De Ara\u00fajo\u2019s on-screen proxy is Reeves, whom she discovered by canvassing a farmer\u2019s market in their native San Francisco. Tatum and Chan play Josephine\u2019s parents, who must navigate the little girl\u2019s trauma amid the quest for justice for the survivor. The A-listers also served as producers on the project.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was magic when her audition tape came in,\u201d the filmmaker, named one of Variety\u2019s 10 Directors to Watch<\/a> for 2026, told Variety about Reeves. \u201cShe\u2019s never acted before, but she\u2019s an incredibly smart and emotionally intelligent person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0pleased\u00a0to see\u00a0that Sumerian has\u00a0emerged as\u00a0a new\u00a0distribution company,\u00a0made up of people\u00a0who love\u00a0films and are committed\u00a0to\u00a0inviting audiences into the\u00a0theaters,\u201d de Ara\u00fajo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvildsen and Sumerian Pictures president Rob Williams, who negotiated the deal with WME Independent and CAA Media Finance, added that \u201cJosepihne\u201d is\u00a0\u201can enthralling, deeply emotional and powerful film that deserves all the acclaim and accolades it has already received from Sundance. We are so thrilled to be working with Beth de Ara\u00fajo and the whole team to bring this to audiences with Sumerian Pictures.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSumerian Pictures\u2019 upcoming theatrical slate includes the rom-com \u201cMile End Kicks,\u201d David Verbeek\u2019s \u201cThe Wolf, the Fox and the Leopard,\u201d \u201cBroken Voices\u201d from Ond\u0159ej\u00a0Provazn\u00edk and\u00a0\u201cHorsegirls\u201d directed by Lauren Meyering.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJosephine\u2019s\u201d emotional Park City premiere on Jan. 23 marked a full-circle experience for De Ara\u00fajo, since she developed the material through the Sundance Institute\u2019s directors\u2019 lab. The director wiped away tears as she was welcomed to the stage at the Eccles with a standing ovation; the crowd continued to clap and cheer as the cast joined her with Tatum picking up his pint-sized co-star to swing her around with glee. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt may sound strange to use the word \u2018subtle\u2019 to describe a film that opens with a brutal assault, and yet, de Ara\u00fajo excels in constructing a universal human experience out of incredibly specific details (whether drawn from memory, research or her imagination),\u201d Variety\u2019s Peter Debruge wrote in his review<\/a> of the film, where he also praised the actors for their powerful and nuanced performances.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJosephine\u201d is de Ara\u00fajo\u2019s second feature after the single-shot thriller, 2022\u2019s \u201cSoft & Quiet,\u201d which debuted at SXSW and was subsequently acquired by Blumhouse. The film was released that fall by Momentum Pictures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJosephine,\u201d a psychological thriller starring Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan and newcomer Mason Reeves, has been acquired for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7011,146,96979,85,46,134586,397,48764],"class_list":{"0":"post-291610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-channing-tatum","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gemma-chan","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-josephine","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-sundance-film-festival"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}