Lionsgate to release Levinson's 'Bay'

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 15 (UPI) -- Lionsgate says it has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to director Barry Levinson's eco-horror film "The Bay" from Alliance Films.

The announcement was made jointly Friday by Joe Drake, president of Lionsgate's motion picture group, and Jason Constantine, president of acquisitions and co-productions.

The film chronicles an unprecedented biological disaster unleashed from the waters of the Chesapeake Bay -- an isopod parasite, carrying a horrific untreatable disease, that jumps from fish to human hosts. The true horror and scope of the event unfolds on footage captured on home videos and the Internet by the town's victims, Lionsgate said in a synopsis.

"Ingenious genre films are and always will be a specialty at Lionsgate," Drake said in a statement. "'The Bay' is a shining example of the kind of truly fresh horror film that audiences are always ready for, and that we excel at eventizing with them. Thanks to Barry, we'll all be afraid to go in the water for years to come."

Levinson co-wrote the film with Michael Wallach.

No release date has been announced yet.