Pulsar Boards Kike Maíllo’s ‘A Perfect Enemy’ Based on Amelie Nothomb’s Bestseller (EXCLUSIVE)
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Popular Spanish filmmaker Kike Maíllo (“Eva,”“Toro”) is set to direct “A Perfect Enemy,” a psychological thriller based on Amelie Nothomb’s bestselling novel “The Enemy’s Cosmetique” with “Cold War” star Tomasz Kot and “The Good Liar” actress Athena Strates set to headline.
Pulsar Content, the newly launched Paris sales company, has boarded the project and is representing the film in international markets, kicking off with the AFM. UTA Independent Film Group is co-representing the U.S. rights with Pulsar Content.
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Described by Pulsar as a thriller with “edge-of-the-seat crime twists,” the movie follows a successful architect, Jeremy Angust (Kot, pictured), who is approached by a chatty woman named Texel Textor (Athena Strates) at a Paris airport. Jeremy misses his flight because of Texel, who seems like an outcast desperate for attention. Although the meeting seems fortuitous, the nature of this encounter soon turns into something much more sinister and criminal. Both Kot and Strates are represented by UTA.
“As a director, I am fascinated by the idea of playing a game with the audience and having
them become active detectives trying to find a resolution to the plot, before we respond to all the
questions,” said Maíllo.
“A Perfect Enemy” is produced by Spain’s Sabado Peliculas and French production company The Project. OneWorld Entertainment is co-financing in France. The film will start lensing in December for an expected delivery next fall, in time for fall festivals.
In a joint statement, The Project and Sabado Peliculas said, “Kike Maíllo’s contemporary vision is a strong echo of today’s society, where shallowness, the need for constant stimuli and a struggle to be perceived as perfect are the new standards.
Pulsar, launched at Toronto by former Bac Films executives Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett, said “Adding ‘A Perfect Enemy’ to our slate is very much in line with our ambition to pick up high-concept projects [aimed at] the international market.
“The success of the novel, the quality of the script, the talent of the filmmaker and cast combined are very promising and we’re thrilled to be onboard,” said Sousa and Garrett, who created Pulsar Content in partnership with Logical Pictures.
The company already boasts an ambitious first slate, including a project by Nicolas Winding Refn, as well as “The Deep House,” which is being co-repped with XYZ, and “Resurrected,” a thriller produced by Timur Bekmambetov and his company Bazelevs.
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