Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Anchor Bay has closed a deal to distribute Tanner Hall, a coming-of-age film that premiered at Toronto last fall. The film got a dose of deal momentum after its unknown star, Rooney Mara, landed the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in the David Fincher-directed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Anchor Bay, which bought domestic, UK, Australia and New Zealand rights, plans to release the film in close proximity to Dragon Tattoo, which gets released December 21 by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Tanner Hall also stars Tom Everett Scott, Chris Kattan and Amy Sedaris, and marks the directorial debut of Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Furstenberg. The film takes place at a boarding school in a New England town where four restless teens come of age. Brie Larsen, Georgia King and Amy Ferguson round out the quartet. The picture was well received at Toronto, and came out of the festival looking like it would get distributed by Moving Pictures Film & Television. By the time Mara got the Salander role that every young actress in Hollywood wanted, Tanner Hall’s distribution situation had become tenuous and MPF&T agreed to step aside. Submarine Entertainment’s Josh Braun and attorney Marc H. Simon made the new deal with Anchor Bay’s Bill Clark, Kevin Kasha, Josh Thomashow and Richard Turner.