Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Films has landed domestic distribution rights to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis. The film attracted heavy interest after its first screening was held last week on the Sony lot, one that drew a music crowd, a constellation of movie stars and numerous studio execs. The result was, everybody got hot and bothered about the film. I’m hearing there were three bidders for the pic and CBS Films got the film for close to $4 million for U.S. rights. Oscar Isaac stars in the pic, which takes place in the folk-music circuit in downtown New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham and Justin Timberlake co-star.

The Coens and producer Scott Rudin, reteaming after True Grit and No Country For Old Men, made the film without a domestic distributor; Studio Canal fully financed and is releasing in some international territories and brokering offshore deals in other territories. UTA negotiated the CBS Films deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

Last month, CBS Films acquired domestic rights to the coming-of-age comedy Toy’s House during the Sundance Film Festival. While the division has ramped up homegrown projects like the comedy Last Vegas, it has become a real player in the acquisitions part of the game.