Pre-Toronto film festival acquisitions are flying Friday, with first Sony Pictures Classics picking up Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep” and now IFC Midnight grabbing U.S. rights to “Berberian Sound Studio.”
A psychological horror film from writer-director Peter Strickland, “Berberian Sound Studio” recently screened at the Locarno and Edinburgh fests (read Eric Kohn’s review here) and will go on to play at Toronto and the New York Film Festival. Toby Jones stars in the film as a British sound engineer who takes a job working on an Italian horror movie in 1976 and begins to lose his grip on sanity.
READ MORE: Toby Jones On Choosing Roles, Avoiding Hollywood and the Crisis of Global Politics
Keith Griffiths and Mary Burke produced the project; Robin Gutch, Katherine Butler and Hugo Heppel are executive producers. The Illuminations Films / Warp X production was co-developed and co-financed by Film4 & UK Film Council Film Fund and made in association with Screen Yorkshire and Geibendorfer Film und Fernsehproduktion KG.
“‘Berberian Sound Studio’ is a dazzling cinematic tour-de-force that brings to mind Hitchcock, Argento and De Palma featuring a brilliant performance by Toby Jones,” said Sundance Selects/IFC Films president Jonathan Sehring. “Peter Strickland is one of the most exciting new directors we’ve come across.”
READ MORE: IFC Midnight Goes Crazy for ‘Maniac’ Remake Starring Elijah Wood
Sundance Selects/IFC Films exec Arianna Bocco negotiated the deal with Brigitte Suarez of The Match Factory on behalf of the filmmakers.
A sister label of IFC Films and Sundance Selects, IFC Midnight picked up the remake of “Maniac” Thursday and has the films “Room 237” and “Antiviral” forthcoming.
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