The movie, now shooting in Europe, is a co-production of MPI/Dark Sky Films, Los Angeles-based XYZ Films and Pellicola of Amsterdam.

The Momentum acquisition of U.K. rights to Raaphorst’s big-screen debut was announced at the EFM in Berlin.

The presale was negotiated by Nate Bolotin of XYZ Films and Robert Walak of Momentum, the subsidiary of Montreal-based Alliance. MPI and XYZ are handling international sales.

Shooting in Prague, the movie marks Dutch director Raaphorst’s debut after his Worst Case Scenario shorts gained him popularity among horror fans worldwide.

His story is set toward the end of World War II and sees Russian soldiers, pushing into eastern Germany, stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Viktor Frankenstein.

The scientists have used the notorious Frankenstein’s work to assemble an army of supersoldiers stitched together from a combination of the body parts of their fallen comrades, weapons and machinery — a desperate Hitler’s last ghastly ploy to escape defeat.

MPI/Dark Sky Films original horror productions include genre films such as Ti West’s The House of the Devil, Adam Green’s Hatchet II, Jim Mickle’s Stake Land and The Innkeepers.

Momentum’s recent rollouts include The King’s Speech, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,Troll Hunter and Let the Right One In, and the distributor is gearing up for the U.K. launch of The Woman in Black and The Raid.

XYZ Films produced The Raid, a Sony Pictures Classics release stateside.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

HanWay has picked up international rights to Daniel Stamm’s (The Last Exorcism) new thriller The Darknessstarring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Thing). HanWay will also co-handle US rights with CAA, who rep Stamm and Winstead.

Megan Holley (Sunshine Cleaning) has scripted and producers are Joe Neurater of Occupant Entertainment and Felipe Marino and Ben Forkner of Management 360.

XYZ Films (The Raid) will be executive producing on the thriller which is set to shoot this summer in Europe.

The Darkness, loosely based on Henry James’ classic novel Turn of the Screw, follows a young American student working for a charismatic tutor in an English manor house who becomes convinced that she and the children she is warding are being haunted.

Winstead most recently appeared in Sundance hitSmashed and recently finished shoot on in Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunteropposite Dominic Cooper. Stamm’s 2010 thriller The Last Exorcism grossed $71m at the box office.

HanWay managing director Thorsten Schumacher said: “We were blown away by The Last Exorcism. Given the recent box office success of the ghost movie genre in attracting the sought after younger audience, the timing is perfect to bring this haunting thriller to the marketplace”.

Source: Screen International

From acclaimed writer/director Ti West (House Of the Devil, Innkeepers) and celebrated independent producer Ted Hope (In The Bedroom, Adventureland, American Splendor), comes an intense sci-fi thriller THE SIDE EFFECT starring Liv Tyler (The Strangers, Lord of the Rings).

While spending several months in space as part of an experiment for a global pharmaceutical company, Catherine Rigby (Tyler) suddenly finds herself inexplicably pregnant. Stranded in space and desperate for answers, paranoia and hysteria take over, as the truth behind her mysterious pregnancy grows more elusive.

This film is currently in pre-production.

Summit Entertainment will distribute the film worldwide per its deal with Participant; the two partners are co-financing the project with Imagenation.

Participant developed Alex and David Pastor’s script in-house and then pacted with Spanish production company Apaches (The Orphanage) and Colombian production house Dynamo (Contracorriente). The writing duo’s credits includeCarriers.

Spanish filmmaker Luis Quilez is directing the Participant movie in his feature debut after making a number of short films. Quilez is set to begin shooting this month in Colombia.

The storyline revolves around a Western corporate executive who moves to a rural town in Colombia with his family to run one of his company’s factories. Soon, they discover their new home is haunted.

Participant has been on a winning streak at the box office with The Help and Contagion, projects it co-produced and co-financed. The company was involved early on in The Help, which is up for four Academy Awards, including best picture and best actress (Viola Davis).

Participant and Focus Features are in negotiations to acquire an untitled drama project written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski. Damon was originally planning to direct the film at Warner Bros., where he has a production deal, but he had to move on over scheduling difficulties. Gus Van Sant then came aboard to helm.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

“Side Effect,” helmed and penned by Ti West and toplining Liv Tyler, has sold to Revolver in the U.K., Rialto in Oz and Tiberius in Germany.

Additionally, the horror/sci-fi pic, which focuses on pharmaceutical medicines that are tested in outer space, also sold to China (HGC), India (Pictureworks), Eastern Europe (Blue Sky), Turkey (Calinos) and the Middle East (Germany).

Pic, which is in pre-production, is produced by Double Hope Films.

Horror actioner “Dead Mine,” helmed by Steven Sheil from a script he penned with Ziad Semaan, has been picked up by eOne for a multi-territory deal for Blighty, Canada, France, German-speaking Benelux, Scandinavia and South Africa.

Pic, which toplines Sam Hazeldine and Joe Taslim and is produced through shingle Infinite Frameworks Studios, follows a treasure hunter who takes a group deep into the Indonesian jungle to search for treasure. Their situation takes a turn for the worse as they become trapped in an abandoned WWII Japanese bunker.

Celluloid Nightmares is a partnership with Paris-based Celluloid Dreams and Los Angeles-based XYZ, which focuses on bring elevated genre commercial pics to a global audience.

Source: Variety

Deep in the heart of Jakarta’s slums lies an impenetrable safe house for the world’s most dangerous killers and gangsters. Until now, the rundown apartment block has been considered untouchable to even the bravest of police. Cloaked under the cover of pre-dawn darkness and silence, an elite swat team is tasked with raiding the safe house in order to take down the notorious drug lord that runs it. But when a chance encounter with a spotter blows their cover and news of their assault reaches the drug lord, the building’s lights are cut and all the exits blocked. Stranded on the 6th floor with no way out, the unit must fight their way through the city’s worst to survive their mission.

Director Gareth Evans (Merantau) and rising martial-arts star Iko Uwais reunite in this adrenaline-fueled action film.

World Premiere: Toronto International Film Festival, 2011

U.S. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Watch Trailer

International sales are being handled by Celluloid Nightmares, the foreign sales partnership between XYZ Films and Celluloid Dreams. Alliance/Momentum has pre-bought for the United Kingdom and Canada; Koch Media has acquired the film for German speaking territories; Korea Screen has pre-bought Korea; and HGC has pre-bought China. Deals for other major territories are currently in negotiations. The new installment will have a “significantly larger budget” than the original, producers say, although storyline details are being kept quiet. The Raid, which will screen at the upcoming SXSW Film Festival, follows an elite SWAT team sent to raid an impenetrable safe house in the Indonesian capital’s slums. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing The Raidtheatrically on March 23rd and Screen Gems is planning an English-language remake which XYZ Films is also producing. XYZ is an LA-based production and sales company founded by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Aram Tertzakian.

Source: Deadline

The film will be produced by Double Hope Films’ Ted Hope, and Peter Phok, who previously teamed with West on The House Of The Devil and The Innkeepers. The latter film hits U.S. theaters February 3 through Magnet. Tyler, whose resume spans fantasy with The Lord Of The Rings and horror with The Strangers, also will be in Sundance for the debut of Robot And Frank, in which she stars with Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon. Tyler called West “a super-talented exciting young filmmaker. The role of Rigby is a fantastic character within a great thriller and I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into the part.”

While Hope’s resume is mostly highbrow fare (I did notice he started his career as assistant director of 1990′s Frankenhooker), Hope sparked to West’s genre work and the chance to be involved as the filmmaker grows more ambitious. “I was blown away by Ti’s films,” Hope said. “I wondered why the studios and big budget guys hadn’t yet scooped him up. His movies are note-perfect displays of tension and tone. Each aspect of his filmmaking serves the whole. It’s rare to see such talent on display.” Hope previously collaborated with Tyler on the James Gunn-directed Super.

West said he hasn’t abandoned his genre origins with this film. “Although it is still somewhat of a horror film, it is much more psychological than any of my previous efforts,” he said. “It was essential that I find an actress who could portray a wide range of emotion and always earn the audience’s sympathy no matter what the situation. As soon as I sat down with Liv, it was obvious she was the one.”

Foreign rights will be sold by Celluloid Nightmares, the sales arm of XYZ Films (the company behind the Sundance-bound Indonesian action film The Raid). The film will be shopped at the upcoming European Film Market. UTA is selling domestic.

Source: Deadline

Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab that is unearthing and reanimating fallen German soldiers in a last ghastly ploy to escape otherwise inevitable defeat.

Beginning production in March 2012, the film marks Dutch director Richard Raaphorst’s debut after his Worst Case Scenario shorts gained him popularity among horror fans worldwide.

Set for production in Prague, Frankenstein’s Army is a co-production of MPI/Dark Sky Films, Los Angeles-based XYZ Films and Pellicola of Amsterdam.

Watch Promo

“Boogaloo,” from documentarian Mark Hartley (“Not Quite Hollywood”), centers on the two Israeli-born cousins, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, who launched an indie studio that would produce over 120 exploitation films from 1979-1989 . The film is currently in pre-production in Australia with Veronica Fury producing and XYZ Films exec producing.

Cannon produced “Missing in Action,” sequels to “Death Wish, “Runaway Train,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” “The Apple,” “Breakin,” “Masters of the Universe,” “Lifeforce,” “Kickboxer,” “52 Pick-Up,” “Barfly” and Jean-Luc Godard’s “King Lear.”"Cannon Films was an enterprise that in many ways defined exploitation cinema of the 1980s,” said Alamo Drafthouse CEO and Fantastic Fest Founder Tim League.

The deal was negotiated by Nate Bolotin, on behalf of Celluloid Nightmares and XYZ Films and League, James Emanuel Shapiro and Evan Husney on behalf of Drafthouse.

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a 13-screen chain in Texas and Virgina with plans to expand into Denver, Los Angeles and New York. Drafthouse Films recently acquired North American rights to Michael Roskam’s crime drama “Bullhead,” Belgium’s official candidate for the Oscar foreign-language film award; Mikkel Nogaard’s Danish comedy “Clown”; and “Comin at Ya! 3D.”

Source: Variety