Fox Intl Prods Acquires ‘Silent Night’ WW II Serial Killer Script From White Horse
EXCLUSIVE: Fox International Productions has acquired James Luckard’s WW II serial killer thriller Silent Night from Nigel Sinclair and Guy East’s White Horse Pictures. The original screenplay is Luckard’s first and will be one of FIP’s most ambitious projects to date. The studio intends to co-finance with White Horse. Sinclair (End Of Watch, The Ides Of March) and White Horse’s Nicholas Ferrall will produce with Peter Dealbert (478) of Pacific View Management.
FIP and White Horse are currently looking to hire a director and are eyeing a 2017 production in Europe. The film will be distributed by FIP worldwide.
Luckard is a USC Film School graduate and a historian with expertise in WW II and Cold War/Soviet Studies. Silent Night is inspired by true events. It’s 1941 in Berlin — the heart of the escalating Nazi empire — as a brutal serial killer roams the blacked-out streets, targeting young women.
Determined to keep the nation focused on the war effort, Nazi leadership tasks homicide detective Alex Lang with tracking down the murderer. During his investigation, Lang collides with the pervasive malevolence of Nazi Berlin and is forced to ally himself with the only living authority on the mind of a serial killer — renowned Jewish criminal psychologist Simon Rosenthal.
Enduring insidious bigotry, Lang and Rosenthal form an unlikely and prohibited bond as they profile and track down the killer. All the while, each man embarks on his own journey toward freedom.
Fox International Productions President Tomas Jegeus says the script grabbed him with its “moody, mysterious setting and unexpected twists. It’s set in one of the most disturbing periods in history, which only adds more intrigue and suspense.” FIP works across myriad markets and genres and recently had great success with Korean mystery The Wailing (Goksung) which had a record-breaking opening in May and is Fox’s 2nd biggest film in Korea ever behind Avatar.
Silent Night exec producer is White Horse’s Cassidy Hartmann; Jeanne Elfant Festa will co-exec produce. David Whitney introduced the project to White Horse, and will also serve as a co-executive producer.
Luckard is repped by Dealbert and attorney David Fox. White Horse is repped in the FIP transaction by attorney Dan Stutz of Stutz Law Corporation.
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