Waititi's Wilderpeople gets US cinematic release

Taika Waititi's acclaimed Hunt for the Wilderpeople will get a cinematic release in the United States.

The North American rights for the film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last weekend, has been bought by distribution company The Orchard for just under $US2 million.

The company has earlier ties to the director, having handled the post-theatrical release of Waititi and Jemaine Clement's vampire spoof What We Do In the Shadows in the US and Canada.

Wilderpeople will be getting a traditional theatrical release as part of the deal.

"This film captures so much of what we love about Taika - it's wildly funny, endearing, smart and it deserves as big an audience as possible," said the company's Paul Davidson.

"We pursued this film for all of those reasons but also because we genuinely love being in business with Taika."

Waititi: "We developed a really strong relationship with The Orchard on What We Do In The Shadows. They did such a great job on that release that I'm really pleased to be partnering with them again on Wilderpeople.

"I'm excited the film will be getting a theatrical release in North America. It was the main thing we wanted coming into Sundance, so we're all going home happy."

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is based on the Barry Crump novel Wild Pork and Watercress.

It stars Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Oscar Kightley and Rhys Darby.

It is due for release at New Zealand cinemas on March 31.