Netflix Nearing $5 Million Deal for ‘Perfect Neighbor,’ Sundance Documentary About Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law (EXCLUSIVE) – Variety
“The Perfect Neighbor,” a documentary that examines Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws and gun regulations, is in final negotiations to sell to Netflix after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. The price tag is roughly $5 million, although the deal hasn’t been signed.
Netflix declined to comment.
The film, which debuted to critical praise, uses police bodycam footage to tell the story of how a neighborhood dispute slowly escalated into a shocking act of violence. It follows a tragedy that captivated national attention, one in which a woman named Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens was shot and killed by her neighbor, Susan Lorincz, after Lorincz kept complaining about children playing near her apartment.
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So far, it’s been a glacial market, with only a handful of films landing distribution out of Sundance. Netflix has been the most prolific buyer, also nabbing rights to “Train Dreams,” an acclaimed drama starring Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones. Elsewhere, A24 scored a festival favorite in “Sorry, Baby,” Sideshow and Janus Films landed the Ira Sach two-hander “Peter Hujar’s Day,” while Neon emerged victorious in a bidding war for “Together,” a body-horror thriller starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie. “The Perfect Neighbor” was seen as one of the most accomplished and powerful documentaries to play at the festival and is believed to have awards potential.
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Geeta Gandbhir directed the film and had a personal connection to the story. Owens was her sister-in-law’s best friend. Soledad O’Brien serves as an executive producer. In an interview with Variety, Gandbhir said that she decided to put the focus of the film on the police footage instead of having it contain interviews with people impacted by the incident because it gave the story more immediacy.
“You see Susan’s interactions with the police over two years,” she said. “You see this trail and the developments as they occur, and the issue gets worse. You see the inability and the helplessness of law enforcement to really manage it or to even see her as a threat. But you also see this beautiful, diverse and close-knit community who are taking care of each other’s kids. Susan is this outlier, in a way that she is this looming threat that keeps encroaching and getting closer and closer, and there is no way to mitigate it.”
Cinetic Media handled the sale of the film.
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