By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

IFC MIDNIGHT TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO FRANCK KHALFOUN’S MANIAC

New York, NY (August 23, 2012) – IFC Midnight announced today that the company is acquiring all North American rights to director Franck Khalfoun’s thriller MANIAC. Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur wrote the screenplay for the film, which stars Elijah Wood, is a remake of William Lustig’s 1980 film of the same title. Thomas Langmann, Aja, Levasseur, and Lustig produced the project with Antoine de Cazotte, Daniel Delume, Andrew W. Garroni, Pavlina Hatoupis, and Alix Taylor executive producing. MANIAC premiered in the Official Selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival out of competition.

Frank is the withdrawn owner of a mannequin store, but his life changes when young artist Anna appears asking for his help with her new exhibition. As their friendship develops and Frank’s obsession escalates, it becomes clear that she has unleashed a long-repressed compulsion to stalk and kill. A 21st century Jack the Ripper set in present-day LA, MANIAC is a re-boot of the cult filmconsidered by many to be the most suspenseful slasher movie ever made – an intimate, visually daring, psychologically complex and profoundly horrific trip into the downward spiraling nightmare of a killer and his victims.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “Franck Khalfoun and Alexandre Aja have reteamed and are joined by Elijah Wood for a deeply disturbing remake of William Lustig’s classic that will delight genre fans. We can’t wait to bring this to audiences and look forward to working with La Petite Reine and Studio 37 who guided this film into the world.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions and Jeff Deutchman, Director of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with CAA and Carole Baraton of Wild Bunch on behalf of the filmmakers.

IFC Midnight is a sister label of IFC Films and Sundance Selects, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

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About IFC MIDNIGHT

Established in 2010 and based in New York City, IFC Midnight is a leading U.S. distributor of genre entertainment including horror, science-fiction, thrillers, erotic art house, action and more.  Its unique distribution model makes independent genre films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Some of the company’s successes have included Tom Six’s controversial horror film The Human Centipede (First Sequence), Johnnie To’s Hong Kong revenge thriller Vengeance, and James Gunn’s Super starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon. Upcoming IFC Midnight releases include Brandon Cronenberg’s ANTIVIRAL. IFC Midnight is a sister label to Sundance Selects and IFC Films, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon