EXCLUSIVE

Sony Pictures Classics is about to buy the Sundance movie "Smashed," starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an alcoholic schoolteacher who decides to get sober, TheWrap has learned.

James Ponsoldt directed the film, which he wrote with Susan Burke.

Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling and Jennifer Cochis produced.

Also read: ‘Smashed’ Gives Alcoholism a Young, Human, Beautiful Face

"Smashed" is about Kate and Charlie, a married couple whose alcoholism sends their lives spinning out of control. Winstead plays Kate and Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad") plays Charlie. When Kate decides to get sober, she has to confront the lies she has been teling at work and the true nature of her relationship with her husband.

Schwartz and Sperling also produced "Nobody Walks," which Magnolia picked up at this year's Sundance. Myriad Pictures has acquired international rights to that movie, and will shop it at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Schwartz and Sperling, of Super Crispy Entertainment, were honored at Sundance with a special jury prize for excellence in independent film producing for "Smashed" and "Nobody Walks." They also produced last year's Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning movie, "Like Crazy."

In January, Winstead told TheWrap that “I was trying to find something that would challenge me. … I was getting jealous of other actors who were doing what they believe in, who were not working within a box. I was getting scared of not being a better actor, of not growing and changing.”

UTA Independent Film Group and CAA represented the film.

