EXCLUSIVE: Primary Wave Entertainment has acquired worldwide remake rights to the 2013 China/Hong Kong film Chunmeng for producer Joaquin Padro (The Orphanage) and Amityville Horror helmer Andrew Douglas. The original film, which goes by the international title Longing For The Rain, was written and directed by Lina Yang, and is a complex supernatural drama/horror that explores a woman whose marriage is threatened by a spirit that allegedly sexually assaults her at night. It was awarded a Special Mention at the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival “for the courage of its director and its actress in exploring sensitive issues such as sex and spirituality in contemporary China.”
The English-language remake is going by the working title Rapture. Described as a sort of What Lies Beneath meets Rosemary’s Baby, it will be written by Adam Davenport, who has been Melissa Leo’s producing partner under the First Lady Films banner.
Davenport is exec producing with Padro overseeing development under his Barcelona-based Rodar Y Rodar. Primary Wave will oversee financing and distribution and handle sales for an AFM launch. Padro is producing with David Guillod, who earlier this year merged with Primary Wave.
Padro says Rapture “has all the elements of great horror: a great premise and a new twist to the genre with a complex female lead role.” Douglas calls it “a film that seeks to be both horror and drama, like Let The Right One In or The Exorcist, with provocative modern ideas.”
The director’s 2005 reboot of The Amityville Horror grossed $108M worldwide. He most recently helmed the Bryan Singer-produced fact-based thriller UWantMe2KillHim? which was distributed the Weinstein Company internationally and Tribeca Films domestically. He is repped by UTA. Davenport is repped by APA.
The deal was brokered by Matt Rosen at Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson & Binder.
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