According to Deadline, IFC Films has acquired domestic rights to Jamie M. Dagg’s Sweet Virginia. Dagg’s first feature film River premiered at 2015’s Toronto Film Festival and was well received. The neo-Western drama thriller stars Jon Bernthal (The Accountant), Christopher Abbott (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot), Imogen Poots (The Promise), Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land) and Odessa Young (Looking for Grace). It made its debut at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, earlier this year to good reviews.

The 2012 Black List script was penned by Ben and Paul China. The story follows Sam (Bernthal), the proprietor of the local motor lodge in a small Alaskan town. Sam is a former rodeo champion with a dark past who unwittingly befriends a hitman (Abbott) responsible for a burglary-homicide which has thrown the town into fearful chaos.

Producers are Brian Kavanaugh-Jones for Automatik, Chris Ferguson for Oddfellows and Fernando Loureiro and Roberto Vasconcellos for Exhibit. Executive producers are Rian Cahill and Jesse Savath with XYZ Films’ Nate Bolotin and Aram Tertzakian.

Sweet Virginia will next screen at the upcoming Cannes market.