Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American rights to All Things Must Pass, theColin Hanks documentary about the demise of Tower Records. It world premiered atSXSW, and now a September theatrical release is planned. The pic, from Hanks and Sean Stuart’s Company Name, digs into the onetime record giant’s rise (it made $1B in 1999) under rebellious founder Russ Solomon, its tragic fall (it filed for bankruptcy in 2006), and its legacy.
The deal is a nice milestone for the documentary, which took Hanks and Stuart more than four years to complete after securing initial funding from a Kickstarter campaign. “It’s already been an incredible journey, making this film with such a talented team — from our amazing group of producers to our writer and editor, and our phenomenal film subjects,” Hanks said. “We could not be more thrilled.” Both are from Sacramento, where the record giant got its start.
Talking heads include Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Elton John, and David Geffen. The cast includes Tower Records founder Russ Solomon, Michael Solomon, Heidi Cotler, Mark Viducic, Stan Goman, and Bob Delanoy. Stuart produced the pic, Glen Zipper executive produced and Steven Leckart wrote it.
The deal was struck by Gravitas founder and CEO Nolan Gallagher with Marc Bortz and Kevin Iwashina from Preferred Content and Josh Braun and Dan Braun from Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.