A new distributor owned by one of America’s richest men has bought US rights to writer-director Michael Petroni’s Backtrack after its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Saban Films put up a seven-figure guarantee for the psychological thriller which stars Adrien Brody, Sam Neill, Robin McLeavy and Bruce Spence .
"We're thrilled at the sale to Saban; they made an aggressive offer which is testament to their strong belief in the film,” said See Pictures’ Jamie Hilton, who produced with Antonia Barnard and Petroni.
“A deal this size coming out of Tribeca is a great result and we'll go to Cannes with confidence as we screen the film for the first time to European and other international buyers."
Brody plays Peter, a troubled psychotherapist who suffers from nightmares and eerie visions, which prompt him to revisit his remote hometown where he becomes obsessed with the need to solve a decades-old mystery.
Neill is his mentor Duncan and McLeavy is a local cop named Henning. Madman Entertainment will release in Oz.
Saban Films president Bill Bromiley said, “Backtrack is an unexpected and haunting psychological thriller. Michael Petroni is a great storyteller and his film was a major standout in the Tribeca Film Festival.”
Launched last year by Haim Saban, who made a fortune from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the Fox Family Channel, a joint venture with News Corp., which Disney bought for $US5 billion, the firm's first release was Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman, which grossed a modest $US2.4 million.
The distributor has since acquired romantic comedy How to Make Love Like an Englishman, which features Jessica Alba and Pierce Brosnan, the John Travolta thriller The Forger, Nicolas Cage’s Trust, Taylor Lautner’s Tracers and Hayden Christensen’s American Heist.
At Tribeca, Saban also collared Man-Up, a rom-com comedy starring Simon Pegg as a dapper London divorcée who cajoles a jaded journalist (Lake Bell) into a blind date.