Mike Fleming

Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired U.S. rights to the Stephen Gyllenhaal-directed Grassroots, a character-driven comedy about the power of the people and the virtues of standing up for what you believe in. Jason Biggs, Joel David Moore, Lauren Ambrose, Cobie Smulders, Tom Arnold, Christopher McDonald and Cedric The Entertainer star.

Gyllenhaal and Justin Rhodes wrote the script and Peggy Rajski, Michael Huffington, Matthew R. Brady, Brent Stiefel and Peggy Case produced with MRB Productions. Goldwyn has slated a June 22nd release.

Pic is set in pre-Twitter 2001, as a political unknown named Grant Cogswell (Moore) decides he must take down Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver (Cedric the Entertainer). Grant has only one dream, but it’s a big one: an elegant monorail gliding silently above the city’s wet streets, with only a tiny footprint — “like a kids’ lemonade stand!” – on the ground. He is apoplectic with rage over McIver’s mass transit proposal: a ground rail train he thinks will destroy lower-class neighborhoods, wreak environmental harm on the local salmon population, and destroy the city. Grant has no chance until he lures recently fired alternative-weekly reporter Phil Campbell (Biggs) to run his campaign, who recruits an army of young people to spread the word.