The comedy with the eyebrow-raising title has landed a new distributor at Maple Pictures, after Christal Films last week relinquished its rights for Martin Gero’s Young People Fucking.

Maple has taken the film off Christal’s hands, and pushed its release back two months to June 13.

SVP of theatrical distribution John Bain says the Toronto distributor moved quickly when it became apparent that Christal was willing to part with YPF.

‘We’ve always kind of regretted that we didn’t get involved with the film or pursue it aggressively in its early stages. [YPF] screened and turned out so well,’ Bain tells Playback Daily.

It is not known if the decision by Christal to drop the film is connected with its recent financial trouble. The Montreal company this month revealed it is having cash-flow problems. A Christal spokesperson would not say why the film was dropped.

Both sides say the exact YPF deal has not yet been finalized, and there is no word whether Maple will also distribute the film in Quebec. Maple has a partnership in place with Seville Pictures for Quebec releases.

The comedy, which opened the Canada First! program at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, focuses on four modern couples in different and complex stages of their relationships. It stars Aaron Abrams (who co-wrote the script with Gero), Callum Blue (The Tudors) and Kristin Booth (MVP). Copperheart Entertainment’s Steve Hoban (Splice) produces with Tracey Boulton (Flashpoint).

Bain says Maple and the producers hit it off upon their first meeting and were ‘totally on the same wavelength.’

‘They liked our enthusiasm, our optimism,’ he adds, hinting that there may have been disagreements between the producers and Christal on how to release the film, though he did not elaborate.

The comedy was to open next month in Canada, but Maple pushed back the date to June 13, to buy more time for the advertising campaign. ThinkFilm has the U.S. rights.

‘This all happened quite recently, and so we told the producers if they want us to do a really good job…we need to have the time to do the work,’ Bain explains, adding that Maple hopes to open YPF in all major cities at the same time, though it’s unlikely the film will get a very wide release.

Maple hopes good word of mouth will give the film a chance to play through the summer opposite Hollywood blockbusters as counter-programming, aimed at a ‘more mature audience,’ according to Bain.

The distributor’s first order of business is to get the trailer in place, followed by newspaper, online and outdoor advertising, as well as a broadcast campaign for radio and TV.

Young People Fucking has been a source of controversy since its debut last fall, and is said to be the film that prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to push for provisions in Bill C-10 that would allow the government to deny tax credits to films and TV shows deemed offensive. The film has not yet been rated, though Bain maintains it’s not a cause for concern.

‘It’s a funny, entertaining movie that is and isn’t about sex. It’s about modern, complex relationships,’ he says. ‘So we’re not worried about the rating.’