A24 and DirecTV Set to Acquire ‘Barely Lethal’

DirecTV in partnership with A24 Films is now in negotiations with Main Street Films to pick up U.S. rights to the action-comedy Barely Lethal, according to an exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter.

Produced by Main Street Films, along with Brett Ratner and John Cheng of RatPac Entertainment, Hopscotch Pictures' Sukee Chew and RKO Pictures' Ted Hartley and Vanessa Coifman, Barely Lethal stars 18-year-old Hailee Steinfield as 16-year old Megan, an international assassin. Yearning for a "normal" adolescence life, she fakes her death and enrolls as a high school senior in a suburban high school. She finds that being normal is a lot harder than it seems.

Directed by Kyle Newman from a screenplay by John D'Arco, the film also stars Jessica Alba as Megan's former handler and current nemesis Victoria Knox, Sophie Turner as Heather, Dove Cameron as Liz Larson, Jaime King as special analyst Knight, Samuel L. Jackson as Megan's present handler Hardman, Rachel Harris as Mrs. Larson, Jason Ian Drucker as Parker Larson, Thomas Mann as Roger Marcus, Alexandra Krosney as Cassidy, Dan Fogler as Mr. Drumm, Gabriel Basso as Gooch, Rob Huebel as Mr. Marcus, Steve-O as Pedro, and Finesse Mitchell as Principal Weissman.

Principal photography was completed in December 2013. Mateo Messina was hired July last year to work on the film's musical scoring. Barely Lethal was originally slated to be distributed in the US by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. It was sitting for a long time in gestation until now when an offer was finally made by A24 and DirecTV for the US distribution rights. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hailee Steinfield-starrer action-comedy will be released on DirecTV in April, as well as to select theaters.

The A24 and DirecTV joint venture also recently acquired Slow West, starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender, as well as Denis Villeneuve's Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeff Baena's Life After Beth starring Aubrey Plaza, and Atom Egoyan's The Captive.