Digital Studio Gunpowder & Sky Snags A Sundance Premiere Called ‘The Little Hours’

One year after its launch, the digital studio Gunpowder & Sky has filled its distribution pipeline with a number of interesting projects. Up next for the company led by former Viacom and Endemol execs is The Little Hours, a feature film that premiere to generally positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.

The Little Hours, which stars sitcom sweethearts Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, and Kate Micucci, is a modern-day take on the 14th-century Italian anthology The Decameron, and it contains the same sort of bawdy comedy that has allowed its source material to hold up 600 years after it was first written. The new film was screened at Sundance, where it was generally well-received; The Hollywood Reporter offered particularly effusive praise.

The director of The Little Hours, Jeff Baena, is no stranger to the world of digital distribution. His last film, Joshy, was one of the first picked up by Hulu as part of that platform’s push into original programming. The most notable flick in Baena’s filmography is the 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees, which he co-wrote.

“I wasn’t sure it would be possible, but we managed to find the most outrageous & irreverent film at Sundance, which happens to be written and directed by an amazing talent in Jeff, with killer performances by some of the most hilarious established and up-and-coming film actors,” said Van Toffler, CEO of Gunpowder & Sky, in a press release.

Through Gunpowder & Sky’s Little Hours deal, it has acquired the film’s rights in North America as well as key international territories. When combined with the studio’s 2016 acquisitions of both FilmBuff and Supergravity Pictures, Gunpowder & Sky’s Sundance deal cements it as a major player in the world of digital-first film distribution.