Solstice Studios releasing new cut of Mark Wahlberg-starrer 'Joe Bell'

While screening at the film festival last year, Good Joe Bell caught the attention of Solstice Studios, which has now bought the film over for a price of $20mn.

The film will be released to match the delayed awards season this year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solstice Studios is testing the crowd-pulling capacity of traditional theaters again after releasing Unhinged on August 21.

The film is based on the true story of a man named Joe Bell, who undertook a cross-country walk to raise awareness about bullying after the death of his son Jadin.

Jadin, a gay student, had hanged himself in 2013 after being bullied.

Bell was 48 years old when he was fatally hit by a semi-truck while he was walking through Cheyenne County.

"Joe's Walk for Change," as Bell had described his noble effort on a placard, would be now visible to the audience through Wahlberg's deft rendition.

The Max Payne actor is essaying the role of the working-class father, whose son Jadin, played by Reid Miller, is bullied in high school, thereby putting Bell across an enlightening walk from Oregon to New York City.

Mark Gill, President-CEO of Solstice Studios, says the new cut contains a new original end title song by songwriter Diane Warren.

"Joe Bell is a man who didn't understand certain things about the world until he was faced with them in his own life — as a father. As a parent myself, I know how much fatherhood can change a man," said Wahlberg.