THE FRAMES - FRAMES STAR LANDS LAST BIG SUNDANCE DEAL

FRAMES STAR LANDS LAST BIG SUNDANCE DEAL

An Irish movie musical written and directed by former THE FRAMES star JOHN CARNEY has become the unexpected hit of the Sundance Film Festival - two weeks after the annual movie event ended. Carney's low-budget ONCE, which was shot on hand-held digital cameras in and around the filmmaker's native Dublin, Ireland, was a hit at Sundance, where it picked up the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award. But distributors in America stopped short of signing the $100,000 (GBP51,300) film up because they feared it was too Irish. The movie features The Frames frontman GLEN HANSARD, who appeared in ALAN PARKER's movie THE COMMITMENTS. Summit Entertainment has since picked up world rights to the musical at Sundance and Fox Searchlight have picked up the North American rights for slightly less than $1 million (GBP513,000), according to Billboard.com.