![Sundance: Amazon Nabs Brett Ratner-Produced JT LeRoy Doc 'Author'](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/000068.26554.16586_boywhocriedauthor_still1_jtleroy_-h_2016.jpg?w=2000&h=1126&crop=1)
Amazon has closed a deal to acquire Jeff Feuerzeig’s stranger-than-fiction documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story.
Sources say the deal closed in the night, with Amazon ultimately outbidding The Orchard.
The film, which is playing in the the U.S. Documentary competition section at Sundance, made its world premiere on Jan. 22.
Author follows the bizarre story behind literary persona JT LeRoy, the fictional writer created by American author Laura Albert. LeRoy caused a stir on the literary scene in the late 1990s, complete with a backstory of prostitution, drug addiction and vagrancy. But an exposé in October 2005 revealed that LeRoy was in fact Albert, who called LeRoy her “avatar.”
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Feuerzeig is no stranger to Sundance. His feature The Devil and Daniel Johnston won the U.S. Documentary directing award at the festival in 2005.
A&E, RatPac and Vice are the production companies behind Author. Jeff Feuerzeig, Danny Gabai, Jim Czarnicki, Molly Thompson and Brett Rattner served as producers. Robert Sharenow, Robert DeBitetto, James Packer, Marie Therese Guirgis, Eddy Moretti, Shane Smith and Henry S. Rosenthal executive produced.Czarnecki, Danny Gabai, Molly Thompson, Brett Ratner and Henry S. Rosenthal produced Author. Eddy Moretti, Shane Smith, Robert Sharenow, Robert DeBitetto, James Packer and Marie Therese Guirgis executive produced.
WME Global represented the filmmakers.
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