Mike Fleming

Ealing Metro International and The King’s Speech financier Prescience will finance and sell worldwide rights on Bailout, a Michael Winterbottom-directed comedy that will star Jack Black. The film is based on the Jess Walter novel The Financial Lives of The Poets. Walter adapted his novel, which follows the misadventures of Matt Prior (Black), who loses his job, is crippled with debt and is convinced his wife is having an affair. He’s two weeks from losing his home when he meets two losers at the supermarket who offer him a strange business opportunity and his last chance to save himself. Michael Besman of Ballyhoo is producing with Melissa Parmenter of Revolution Films, Black and Ben Cooley and Priyanka Mattoo of Electric Dynamite. Shooting will begin in August. WME reps Black and Winterbottom, ICM reps Walter.