Apparition Says 'How Much?' to Kristen Stewart Hooker Movie, Welcome to the Rileys

Apparition, the small U.S. distributor bringing you the pre-riot grrrl pop confection The Runaways next weekend, is back in the Kristen Stewart business, having paid a reported seven figures for domestic rights to Welcome to the Rileys -- the first second feature from Jake Scott (Ridley's son) that, like Runaways, also debuted at Sundance.

In Rileys, James Gandolfini plays a sweet, listless insurance salesman in the Midwest, married to a depressed agoraphobe, played by Melissa Leo. Both are still mourning the car accident death of their teenaged daughter. When Gandolfini stumbles upon Stewart's teen hooker in a New Orleans strip club on a business trip, he decides this kitten is in need of rescuing. He quits his job, and moves into her house (dumpy, but pretty spacious and bright for a teen hooker's salary!) to put her back on track. Leo, meanwhile, embarks on a road trip to reconnect with her husband.

It's all a bit mawkish and on-the-nose, a kind of midlife heterosexual male fantasy with some creepy underlying implications (writer Ken Hixon, an actor and screenwriter who co-wrote 1997's Inventing the Abbots, said that its inspiration came from an encounter with an actual teen stripper), and Gandolfini -- the mighty Jupiter of The Sopranos universe -- gets lost in the lackluster material. But the deal comes on the strength of Stewart's marquee value, and as the foul-mouthed, filthy-minded teen with the gnarly complexion at the center of the story, she gives another effective, rough-edged performance -- while going a long way towards coloring in some of those libidinous lines left void by the ever-chaste Bella. [Deadline]