Posted: Sat., Nov. 1, 2008, 2:00pm PT

MSNBC, Submarine hitch for 'Witch'

Sean Penn narrates, exec produces 'Hunt'

By Michael Jones

Penn

Hardy

Nachman

MSNBC Films and Submarine Entertainment have finalized a North American television deal for Dana Nachman and Don Hardy’s “Witch Hunt,” narrated and exec produced by Sean Penn. “Witch Hunt” will have its U.S. preem at AFI Fest on Sunday.

Docu follows eight parents in Bakersfield, who were wrongly convicted of child molestation.

MSNBC Films will air the doc in early 2009 after an Oscar-qualifying run in theaters.

Deal is the second between Josh Braun’s Submarine Entertainment and the newly formed MSNBC Films, the channel’s initiative to present and produce longform docs. Braun also negotiated MSNBC’s pickup of Kurt Kuenne’s docu “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.”