With Sundance sales slow this year, buyers went across town to Slamdance looking for films; Sunday night Picturehouse secured rights to "The King of Kong," a documentary about arcade video gamers battling for dominance in a Donkey Kong championship.

"Kong" went to Picturehouse for a reported "mid to high six figures" according to Variety and will likely hit theaters this summer.

According to the official Slamdance entry, the doc focuses on intent video gamers seeking world records in Donkey Kong, but also Q*Bert, Joust, and Pac-Man.



An unusual simultaneous deal was made with Picturehouse brethren New Line, who will get the rights to remake the video game documentary into a feature film. Original director Seth Gordon (a three-time Sundance filmmaker) will also helm the fictional version of "Kong."

Per Variety, Picturehouse COO Richard Brener proved that execs really do watch potential pick-ups when hunting for films: "Brener became obsessed, viewing the film more than 20 times and pressing [New Line President Toby Emmerich] to be aggressive."


Check out our full Fundance at Sundance 2007 coverage for news, reviews, and photos from the festival!