Studio buys ‘Young’ for $1.5 million

The Los Angeles Film Festival is not known for high-profile movie sales, but Fox Searchlight is working to change that by buying the award-winning festival documentary “Young@Heart” for $1.5 million, the studio announced Tuesday.

A British documentary that was shown on U.K. television last year, “Young@ Heart” offers a backstage look at a group of elderly Massachusetts singers rehearsing for a concert. But the septuagenarian (and even older) vocalists aren’t serving up Frank Sinatra and old show tunes. Instead, under the musical direction of Bob Cilman, they perform covers of modern rock songs by Coldplay, Talking Heads, Radiohead, U2 and the Clash, among others.

In addition to filming the chorus’ rehearsals, director Stephen Walker and producer Sally George also staged several music videos with the singers, including the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and David Bowie’s “Golden Years.”

Fox Searchlight plans to release the film next spring.

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John Horn