Indie distributor Oscilloscope greets "Messenger"

Actors Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and director Oren Moverman (L-R) pose during a photocall to promote the movie 'The Messenger' at the 59th Berlinale film festival in Berlin, February 9, 2009. [Agencies]

LOS ANGELES - Oscilloscope is hearing the message.

The upstart film distributor headed by Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys, has picked up North American rights to Oren Moverman's directorial debut, "The Messenger," which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

The company will release the movie theatrically in November.

"Messenger" stars Ben Foster as a young soldier recently back from Iraq who is assigned to the Army's Casualty Notification Service, which travels the country informing families that a loved one has been killed overseas.

Woody Harrelson co-stars as Foster's gruff, more experienced partner, and Samantha Morton plays a woman whose husband recently was killed in combat and to whom Foster is attracted.

Moverman wrote the script with Alessandro Camon.

The movie has received a number of good notices on the festival circuit, picking up two prizes in February in Berlin. A number of buyers were interested during and right after Sundance, but the lukewarm box-office record of war-themed dramas gave them pause.

The filmmakers, however, said they didn't necessarily see "Messenger" as a straight Iraq tale.

"While there is a military backdrop, there are also more universal ways of connecting to this material," Moverman said. "This is a movie that deals with grief and how we find out about a death, and that's something we all experience in one way or another."

Dramas that tug at the heartstrings have struggled at the box office this season, which could make "Messenger" a tougher sell. But Moverman -- the screenwriter behind such critical darlings as "Jesus' Son" and "I'm Not There" -- said there are hopeful elements to the picture, too.

"I would say it is a feel-good movie," he said. "It just doesn't make you feel good all the time."