According to The Hollywood Reporter, IFC Films has nabbed U.S. rights to Michael Cuesta's sophomore feature Twelve and Holding, company president Jonathan Sehring said Tuesday. An early summer platform release is planned.
Cuesta's follow-up to his controversial 2001 pedophilia-themed drama LIE explores dark adolescent issues through three friends' reactions after a boy (Conor Donovan) dies in a tree house fire set by local bullies. His twin brother (also played by Donovan) sets out for revenge, and an overweight survivor of the fire (Jesse Camacho) loses his sense of taste and smell, leading him to force his obese mother to lose weight. Their female friend (Zoe Weizenbaum) tries to seduce a grief-stricken patient of her therapist mother (Annabella Sciorra).
"It's sort of 'Stand By Me' for a new generation", Cuesta said of the $700,000 film, shot in 25 days in September 2004 on Super 16mm from Anthony Cipriano's screenplay. Cuesta anticipates an R rating because of some profanity and its allusions to an intergenerational romance.