Searchlight sets sights on 'Troopers'
Chandrasekhar's comedy fetches $2.5 mil.
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Deal comes with a significant release commitment for an unspecified number of theatrical markets. John Sloss of Sloss Special Projects, who is also repping such films as Patrick Stettner's "The Business of Strangers," Richard Linklater's "Waking Life" and Scott McGehee's "The Deep End," closed the deal with Searchlight exec veep Joe DeMarco and prexy of marketing Nancy Utley, negotiating on behalf of their company.
Pic was produced by Richard Perello. Jersey Shore, the specialty label of Jersey Films, helped Perello and the Broken Lizard Comedy Group develop the feature, after Jersey had committed to a TV pilot deal for the material. Under Jersey's TV prexy John Landgraf, a "Super Troopers" TV pilot will subsequently be developed.
Film was also produced by the Broken Lizard Comedy Troop, whose members (Chandrasekhar, Brian Cox, Daniel von Bargen, Marisa Coughlan, Lynda Carter and Jim Gaffigan) also starred in and wrote the pic. Broken Lizard previously made "Puddle Cruiser," which screened at Sundance in 1997.
"Super Troopers" is a broad comedy centering around a group of Vermont state troopers, stationed on the Canadian border, who prefer to take impounded sports cars for spins on the open highway than play it straight.
"We're happy to be in business with Perello and the very talented Broken Lizard Comedy Troop," said Jersey Films co-chairmen Michael Shanberg and Stacey Sher.
In the past, Jersey Shore produced such pix as doc "The Filth and the Fury" and this year's Sundance selection "Caveman's Valentine."
