Sony Pictures Classics' The Wackness

Sony Pictures Classics' The Wackness

THE HIGHEST PER SCREEN AVERAGE OF THE JULY 4TH WEEKEND ($23k+ per screen)

 LOS ANGELES, July 7 /PRNewswire/ --    Winner - 2008 Sundance Audience Award    Winner - 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival Audience Award   

Currently in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, expanding to select markets July 11th and July 18, nationally on August 1

Starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck (TV's Drake & Josh), Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Snow Angels), Famke Janssen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Jane Adams & rapper/actor Method Man

Written and directed by Jonathan Levine

It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, is only beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against "crimes" like noisy portable radio, graffiti and public drunkenness.

Two people, however, are missing out on the excitement. Luke (Josh Peck) is a socially uncomfortable teenage pot dealer with no friends, issues with his parents, and a whopping lack of confidence with girls. He trades weed for sessions with his therapist, Dr. Squires (Sir Ben Kingsley), whose much-younger wife (Famke Janssen) is slipping away from him. Squires, a drug-addled shrink with a hairline retreating to the back of his neck and a state of mind slouching back to adolescence, is an unlikely role model -- but the two of them forge a friendship based on a mutual need: neither one is getting laid.

The intergenerational duo set off on a crawl that takes them all over New York, where they encounter several of Luke's "business associates," including a Phish-following dreadlocked pixie (Mary-Kate Olsen), a New Wave, keyboard-playing one-hit-wonder (Jane Adams), and Luke's supplier (Method Man). Luke has long had an aching crush on Dr. Squires' way-out-of-his-league stepdaughter, Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby from "Juno"), and is stunned at his good luck when she returns his affections. Luke's innocent first love experience with Stephanie becomes a life lesson that sets him on the pathway towards adulthood. And when Squires breaks down, it is up to the younger man to throw the older one a lifeline.

Propelled by an exuberant hip hop score, "The Wackness" captures the spell of 1994 -- a time of pagers, not cell phones; a time when Tupac and Biggie were alive but Kurt Cobain had just died. Funny and moving, "The Wackness" is an offbeat tale of two lost souls stumbling towards maturity.

                         http://www.thewackness.com/                         FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION,        PLEASE CONTACT SHANNON TREUSCH/BETSY RUDNICK AT FALCO INK or                       LISA DANNA/BLOCK-KORENBROT PR  

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Source: Sony Pictures Classics

CONTACT: Shannon Treusch, shannontreusch@falcoink.com, or Betsy Rudnick,
betsyrudnick@falcoink.com, both of Falco Ink; or Lisa Danna of
Block-Korenbrot PR, +1-323-634-7001, ldanna@bk-pr.com, all for Sony Pictures
Classics

Web site: http://www.sonyclassics.com/
http://www.thewackness.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment