Mike Fleming

Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights from Indian Paintbrush on Moonrise Kingdom, the Wes Anderson-directed film that stars Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Fran McDormand, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. Anderson has begun filming, from a script he wrote with Roman Coppola. Focus Features International will sell international territories at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Anderson, Scott Rudin, Indian Paintbrush’s Steven Rales and American Epirical’s Jeremy Dawson are producing. As Deadline has reported, the teamup with Anderson came after Indian Paintbrush exec produced and co-financed the Anderson-directed Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited, both of which were produced by Rudin. Moonrise Kingdom is set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s. A young boy and girl fall in love and when they try to run away together, factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward play the young boy and girl.

Rales, who hired Rudin’s former president Mark Roybal to run the company, has become a prolific player in the prestige film space. Indian Paintbrush is in preproduction on Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, the Lorene Scafaria-directed drama that is Steve Carell’s rebound project after exiting The Office. Keira Knightley also stars. David Chase is currently shooting his period rock and roll project with James Gandolfini, and Indian Paintbrush just wrapped Jeff Who Lives At Home, written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, with Jason Segel, Susan Sarandon and Ed Helms starring. Indian Paintbrush also teamed with Paramount to acquire the Drake Doremus-directed Sundance Festival film Like Crazy.