Distributors looking for fresh genre fare in a growing market of remakes and sequels are ponying up hard cash for the hottest genre flicks at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Magnolia Pictures—which releases THE HOST and SEVERANCE in the next couple of months—dropped $2 million for the U.S. and UK rights to THE SIGNAL, from directors David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry and Dan Bush. Bearing certain parallels to Stephen King’s novel THE CELL, SIGNAL presents three perspectives on a phenomenon in which a signal transmitted through sundry media devices turns their users into violent beings. The film screened last night, and was bought within an hour.
Meanwhile, the biting sexual shocker TEETH was picked up by both Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company (which previously jointly released DOGMA and FARENHEIT 9/11), while Fox Searchlight took a liking to the creepy kid thriller JOSHUA, purchasing distro rights to that film over the weekend and planning a summer release.
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