Echo Bridge Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights in all media to the award winning (Crystal Heart Award from the 2004 Heartland Film Festival) theatrical film When Zachary Beaver Came To Town. The movie stars Jonathan Lipnicki and was acquired from Revere Pictures, which most recently produced the critically acclaimed Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger starrer The Door In The Floor. The announcement was made by Echo Bridge Managing Partner Michael Rosenblatt, who oversees acquisitions for the company. Adapted from Kimberly Willis Holt's award winning young adult novel, When Zachary Beaver Came To Town is a coming-of-age story as humorous and sad as real life. The film was written and directed by John Schultz, whose credits include Twentieth Century Fox's Like Mike and Drive Me Crazy as well as Paramount Pictures' upcoming film The Honeymooners. Co-starring with Jonathan Lipnicki is Sasha Neulinger, Jane Krakowski and Eric Stoltz, among others. The film was produced by Amy Robinson (After Hours, Drive Me Crazy), Jay Julien (The King Of New York) and Michael Corrente (Outside Providence, A Shot At Glory), Executive Produced by Roger Marino, and Marisa Polvino (Outside Providence, The Door In The Floor) serves as Co-Producer. In When Zachary Beaver Came To Town, Toby Wilson, 12, is expecting a summer of bike riding and snow cone slurping with his best friend Cal in sleepy Granger, Texas. Instead, they get Zachary Beaver: real life sideshow attraction billed as The Fattest Boy In The World. When Zachary comes to town the young boys unexpectedly face death, divorce and abandonment, not to mention first kisses, train adventures and stolen cars! Before the week is out, they will find hard won friendship, heartbreak, unanticipated acceptance and more than a few surprises along the road to growing up. Commenting on the acquisition, Rosenblatt said, "This is a beautiful film that connects with audiences on many levels, much like Stand By Me. Combining great acting with a powerful and poignant story, we feel it will be widely embraced. The acquisition of the film exemplifies our strategy to build a diverse slate of feature films with wide commercial appeal." Added Marino, "My sons read the book for school and told me how much they loved it, so I read it myself and knew it would make a great movie. The film portrays the value of friendship and the importance of family, which we rarely get to see in movies today." Echo Bridge will present When Zachary Beaver Came To Town to the international sales community at the upcoming AFM in November. The widely popular book, When Zachary Beaver Came To Town won the 1999 National Book Award for Young Peoples' Literature in the fiction category. The book is also an ALA Notable Book for Children, an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults and a School Library Journal Best Book. Echo Bridge remains active in its pursuit to introduce a broad array of distinctive films as the company's Tobe Hooper directed horror feature, Mortuary, is currently in pre-production. The company will aggressively follow its mission to identify and acquire first-rate feature films for acquisition.