Maya Entertainment Snags Worldwide Rights to 'All She Can'

1:33 PM PDT 5/24/2011 by Gregg Kilday

Maya Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Amy Wendel’s All She Can, starring Corina Calderon as a high school student in a small Texas town who enters a powerlifting competition to earn a college scholarship.

The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the dramatic competition under the title Benavides Born, earning its director the L’Oreal Paris Women of Vision Award.

A new cut of the film, written by Wendel and Daniel Meisel, will have a theatrical release in July as part of the Maya Independent Film Series, which tours a program of U.S. and foreign Latino-themed cinema to major markets nationwide.

The film also stars Jeremy Ray Valdez, Joseph Julian Soria and Julio Cedillo.

It was produced by Meisel and Susan Kirr under the Meisel/Wendel production shingle Kapok Pictures. The deal was negotiated by Andrew Herwitz and Andrea Cannistraci of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard on behalf of the producers and Tonantzin Esparza on behalf of Maya.

Elias Axume, Maya’s executive vp, international distribution, is handling foreign sales.