National Geographic nabs rights to "Amreeka"

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - The Sundance crowd-pleaser "Amreeka" has sealed a theatrical deal.

National Geographic Entertainment has bought DVD, television and theatrical rights to the immigrant comedy-drama and plans a fall release to theaters.

Writer-director Cherien Dabis' feature debut tells of a Palestinian single mother who comes to the U.S. with dreams of a brighter future but winds up living with relatives in rural Illinois and working at a White Castle while her son struggles to adjust in his homogenous high school. The movie, which also opens the upcoming New Directors/New Films festival in New York, earned some of the loudest cheers from Sundance festival audiences, who embraced its fish-out-of-water topicality.

National Geographic had worked with Dabris on a short she did via the company's All Roads program, which aims to cultivate young, multicultural filmmakers.

National Geographic as a brand has been known for nature-themed projects, but executives say they hope to reinvent and expand the brand, particularly with the company's theatrical film releases.

"A National Geographic Film is a film that inspires people to care about the world we live in -- that includes human stories, adventures, places, people, environments and the creatures of our planet," National Geographic Films president Adam Leipzig told The Hollywood Reporter.

The company co-presented Warner Independent Pictures' 2005 hit "March of the Penguins," and sister unit National Geographic Cinema Ventures produced and distributed the concert documentary "U2 3D."

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)