The film industry just paid some big bucks for a story that needs to be told. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nate Parker's slave rebellion drama, The Birth of a Nation, has been purchased by Fox Searchlight for $17.5 million. This makes the film, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, the most expensive purchase in the festival's history.

Proving that it was in such high demand, according to Deadline and Variety, Netflix made an even higher bid of $20 million in an attempt to outdo competitors like Fox and the Weinstein Company.

Parker spent seven years working on the film, and even quit acting two years prior beginning production to build financing for the film. He called it his "passion project," in which he writes, directs, and stars. The Birth of a Nation chronicles Nat Turner's 1831 Virginia slave rebellion in an unfiltered, gory and polarizing approach.

The film impressed so highly at the premiere screening during Sundance that it received comparisons to the 2013 Oscar winner for Best Picture, 12 Years a Slave.

Several of Hollywood's elite star in the period piece including Gabrielle Union, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King and Jackie Earle Haley.

Remember Nat Turner's efforts in the BET video, below:

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(Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute)