Mike Fleming

Focus World, the alternative distribution initiative of Focus Features, is partnering with Screen Media Films on acquiring U.S. rights to The Lifeguard, the Kristen Bell-starrer that debuted at Sundance. The film will hit theaters and digital platforms. Written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, the pic stars Bell as a 30-year-old whose career and love life fall into crisis. She retreats home and regresses back into high school life, hanging with her old pals and reclaiming her old job as a condo complex lifeguard. Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr and Amy Madigan also star. Bell, who stars in Showtime’s House Of Lies, just spearheaded a successful Kickstarter funding campaign that means she’ll also star in a movie version of her series Veronica Mars. CAA repped Lifeguard.