Swampscott Native Sells Film Rights for $3 Million

Director Bryan Buckley, who some in Swampscott may remember as a rambunctious teenager who once landed himself in court after a chase with Swampscott Police, has sold the rights to his first feature-length movie for a reported $3 million.

Buckley’s film “The Bronze” opened this year’s Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23. But despite a rumored curse that opening day films always flop, “The Bronze” captured viewer and critic attention.

It also caught the attention of Relativity Media, a group that offered to purchase the rights to distribute the movie less than 24 hours after it debuted, according to the Lynn Daily Item.

“The Bronze” follows the life of washed-up Olympic gymnast Hope Ann Greggory who became a hometown hero in her little Ohio town after winning a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics. She’s crass, disgusting and described as “the woman you will hate in the first five minutes of this film.”

Hope Ann’s small-town celebrity status is threatened when the town produces a new rising star in gymnastics, 16-year-old Maggie.

The Big Bang Theory’s Melissa Rauch (Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz) stars as Hope Ann and co-wrote the screenplay for the film with her husband Winston.

While “The Bronze” is Buckley’s first full-length film, it is not his first claim-to-fame in the directing world. Buckley directed about 40 Super Bowl commercials, including some famous ones like Monster.com’s 2008 ad featuring children who said things like “When I grow up, I’m going to have a brown nose,” and ended with the tagline, “There’s a better job out there.”

He was also nominated for an Oscar in 2013 for his short film, “Asad” about child refugees from a war-torn fishing village in Somalia.

Despite his success with commercials and short films, Buckley said he’d always wanted to make a full-length movie. When asked in a Q+A with Esquire when he had the desire to make a movie, Buckley said “I don’t know if I was out of my mother’s womb at that point or not... It was blurry.”

“The Bronze” should be released to movie theatres later this year.

Read more about “The Bronze” and Buckley’s Super Bowl commercials at Esquire.

Image via Shutterstock