EXCLUSIVE: Neon is in pole position to win North American rights to Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe horror-thriller Longlegs in the first sizeable domestic deal of this year’s EFM.
The multi-million dollar pact, which is being worked through with CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group, isn’t done but is heading in that direction, we understand. None of the parties were available for comment.
Buyers consistently told us this week that Longlegs was among the pre-sale projects they most liked. Black Bear is repping international and has pre-sold most overseas territories here in Berlin.
Pic will follow FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe), a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.
Directed and written by Osgood “Oz” Perkin (I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives In The House), the film is currently filming in Vancouver, Canada. Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan’s C2 Motion Picture Group (Babylon) is producing.
Producers are Cage along with his production company Saturn Films, Dan Kagan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Caplan and Chris Ferguson. Cloth, Fred Berger and John Friedberg are executive producers.
Monroe is known for genre pics It Follows, The Guest and Greta and Watcher. Cage is coming off genre breakout Pig — also distributed by Neon — and Lionsgate comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Parasite distributor Neon is back in the thick of the awards scrum this year with Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness, which has three of the company’s six Oscar nominations. The company is in Berlin with Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, which also played Sundance.
As we revealed, the biggest deal so far at this year’s EFM is the Prime Video pact for international rights to Zoe Saldaña project The Bluff. Prime Video is also in advanced negotiations for a chunk of international rights to Jude Law package The Order, a deal first reported by Variety. While that deal is for a bunch of key overseas territories, we understand the movie also sold to independent distributors across Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Israel and some other markets. Domestic deals at the EFM have been very scarce so far.
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