Anchor Bay sails to "City Island"

LOS ANGELES  – "City Island," a comedy-drama starring Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies and Emily Mortimer that was a hit at the Tribeca Film Festival, has secured a U.S. distribution deal.

Anchor Bay, sister company of Overture Films, has picked up all rights in the U.S., U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

Writer-director Raymond De Felitta's feature is set on the quiet New York City island that's part of the Bronx. The movie concerns a repressed corrections officer (Garcia) who harbors acting dreams but who gets caught in a series of misunderstandings when he brings home his secret adult son from a previous marriage to live with his family. The film's centerpiece is a riff from Garcia in which he auditions for a role in a Martin Scorsese movie.

Drawing the tag of a New York "Little Miss Sunshine" from the press at Tribeca, "Island" was a crowd-pleaser at the festival, scoring its audience award.

Anchor Bay plans a limited release in late 2009 or early 2010, with a wider rollout to follow.

Anchor Bay, which is a division of Liberty Media's Starz unit, recently launched a theatrical unit to complement its home video business. The company aims to release eight to 10 theatrical movies a year.