'Born' Coming to Theaters; Coming to DVD.

NEW YORK -- Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment and New Line Home Entertainment have acquired North American rights to producer Ricki Lake's childbirth documentary "The Business of Being Born."

Red Envelope is planning a theatrical run in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco at the end of October, hiring International Film Circuit to handle theatrical marketing, promotion and distribution. The film will debut on Netflix before the end of the year, followed by a 2008 New Line home video release.

After experiencing the 36-hour delivery of her first child in March 1997, Lake enlisted director Abby Epstein to chronicle the lives of several expecting New York City mothers. The resulting feature examines the history and financial side of childbirth through their experiences and interviews with obstetricians and other experts.

"When Abby and I set out to make this film, our goal was to help inform as many women as possible about the full range of choices they have," said Lake. "The one-two punch of Netflix and New Line combined with a theatrical release in places like New York and LA, where women's choices are ironically more limited statistically, will help us achieve this goal in the most meaningful way possible."

The deal was negotiated by acquisition was negotiated by REE head Bahman Naraghi, New Line Home Entertainment senior vp acquisitions and programming Kevin Kasha and New Line Cinema senior vp acquisitions and production Guy Stodel, with Josh Braun of Submarine representing the filmmakers.

Legal affairs were handled by REE head of business and legal affairs Thomas Zadra with Victoria Cook of law firm FKKS, who represented the filmmakers. REE negotiated the theatrical deal with International Film Circuit president Wendy Lidell and partner Andy Robbins.

Source: Hollywood Reporter