NEW YORK – “Smart People” is a dark comedy about Lawrence Wetherhold, a widowed and unhappy English professor played by Dennis Quaid, who has alienated his son and turned his daughter into an overachieving, friendless teen.

He falls for Janet (Sarah Jessica Parker), one of his former students, while at the same time his ne'er-do-well brother (Academy Award-nominee Thomas Haden Church) shows up at his door unexpectedly, triggering a series of crises and eventually growth in the family as they learn to reconnect.

Currently in post-production, the film marks the directorial debut of Noam Murro and also stars Ellen Page ("Hard Candy") and Ashton Holmes ("History of Violence").

The Miramax sale is the first for Michael London's indie financing company Groundswell.

Groundswell was founded in February 2006 by London, whose credits include "Sideways," "The Illusionist," "Family Stone," and "thirteen." The company is in post production on two other films: “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” starring Sienna Miller, Peter Saarsgard, Nick Nolte, Jon Foster and Mena Suvari, and Tom McCarthy's “The Visitor” starring Richard Jenkins, which it co-financed with Participant Productions.