AceShowbiz -

Seemingly possessing good eye in picking up film projects, Lionsgate has successfully snatched the distribution rights to promising thriller feature "Tenderness" for the U.S, U.K, Australian, and South African regions, Variety has learned.

Being targeted to be launched domestically in late 2007, the flick is a GreeneStreet Films production which is also financed by iDeal Partners Film Fund and the Hanson Film Fund. Russell Crowe, Laura Dern, Jon Foster, and Sophie Traub are all starring with Australian filmmaker John Polson at helm.

Based on Robert Cormier's novel of the same title adapted into the big screen by screenwriter Emil Stern, "Tenderness" centers on a violent young man taking up with a trusting runaway who is plotted to be exposed as a serial killer by a hardened local cop, played by Crowe.