Cannes: Lionsgate Lands North American Distribution Rights To ‘The Quiet Ones’

EXCLUSIVE: In what becomes the second significant domestic distribution deal on the eve of Cannes, Lionsgate closed a deal with Exclusive Media for North American distribution rights to the Hammer production of The Quiet Ones, the John Pogue-directed supernatural thriller that stars Mad Men‘s Jared Harris and Sam Claflin, who starred in the last Pirates Of The Caribbean. Craig Rosenberg and Oren Moverman wrote the script with Pogue.

This follows Warner Bros’ deal for the Ryan Gosling-directed How To Catch A Monster. The Quiet Ones will open April 25, 2014. Pogue wrote the script and Exclusive’s Tobin Armbrust and Simon Oakes will produce with James Gay-Rees, Steven Chester Prince and Ben Holden of The Travelling Picture Show Company. Lionsgate already had UK rights. It’s a nice start for Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger. The film is inspired by true events, and tells the story of a prof who uses controversial methods and engages his students in an attempt to raise a poltergeist from negative human energy. That can’t turn out well, can it?

The deal was brokered by Lionsgate’s Jason Constantine, Eda Kowan and Wendy Jaffe, with CAA repping Hammer. It marks the second directorial outing for Pogue, who helmed Quarantine 2: Teminal. Exclusive is brokering other deals at Cannes, with many already done or close to it. Pogue is repped by Resolution, Circle of Confusion, and Matt Saver.