Arclight Films has taken international sales rights to Australian drama Violet Town and will launch the project at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Australian films are usually tough to pre-sell but the lead cast of Guy Pearce, Rosamund Pike and German actor Sebastian Koch will give the film a solid profile internationally.
Mark Joffe is set to direct the drama adapted from Steven Carroll's novel The Art Of The Engine Driver, a 1957-set tale about a couple who attend a neighbour’s New Year’s Eve party where buried secrets are revealed.
Shooting is due to start in Melbourne and regional Victoria in the last quarter of this year. Studiocanal has the Australian rights. The producers are Morrissey Molloy Entertainment’s John Molloy, Essential Media and Entertainment’s Ian Collie and Joffe.
Koch played the villain in A Good Day to Die Hard and his other credits include The Weekend, The Lives of Others and TV’s Camelot.
He is cast as Eric, a private man who is not welcomed by his adopted community as his East German heritage means he is suspected of being a Communist. He finds a friend in Rita (Pike's character), who understands how it feels to be an outsider.
Molloy produced Nicholas Verso’s The Last Time I Saw Richard, which was named best short fiction film at the AACTA Awards.
Also on his slate is Verso’s Boys In The Trees, the saga of a teenage skater who encounters a former childhood friend and now nemesis, to star Harrison Gilbertson (Fallen, My Mistress, Need for Speed).