MUMBAI: In a deal, Fox Searchlight has lapped up the rights to distribute Ben Lewin’s The Surrogate in all territories worldwide. A source close to the deal pegs the price at around $6 million.

In the fact-based film produced by Judi Levine and Stephen Nemeth, John Hawkes plays a 38-year-old poet and journalist in an iron lung who decides to lose his virginity with the help of Helen Hunt’s sex surrogate. William H. Macy plays the priest who provides guidance to the conflicted man.

It may be remembered that at last year's festival, Searchlight bought Martha Marcy May Marlene along with two other films. The Surrogate is the company's first purchase at this year's festival.

So far during the fest, Sony Pictures Classics has grabbed North American rights of Malik Bendjelloul's competition documentary Searching For Sugar Man while Magnolia Pictures has picked up Lauren Greenfield’s competition doc The Queen of Versailles.