Outsider Takes U.S. on ‘Body’ (EXCLUSIVE)
MADRID — L.A.-based Outsider Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to Oriol Paulo’s B.O. hit “The Body,” the latest film from “The Orphanage” producer Rodar y Rodar, sold by DeAPlaneta Intl.
Set at a morgue and shot in a chic but brooding noir style, “The Body” delivers several twists to trad whodunits formulae. Just one: the murder victim’s body disappears from the morgue, suggesting she may still be alive.
Outsider’s acquisition includes a theatrical and VOD release on “The Body,” one of the 17 films made available to the international press attending this week’s Madrid de Cine-Spanish Film Screenings via the Egeda/Filmotech.com Veospain VOD portal.
Following on deals with HBO for pay TV and Somos TV for the U.S. Hispanic market, “The Body’s” Outsider buy illustrates steady trading by Spanish movies and indeed European films at large.
Though it is foreign films such as “Taken 2” that make the big bucks in the U.S., and overseas movies’ total U.S. market share remains low, the U.S. is still a significant market for overseas films.
“The Body’s” deal was just one of multiple sales announcements made by DeAPlaneta Intl. on the first day of 2013’s Madrid de Cine-Spanish Films Screenings, which kicked off Monday.
Together the sales serve to illustrate the shifting geographic sands of the independent production sector’s international market place.
Taking U.S. Hispanic rights, Somos TV is one of a growing bevy of buyers on Carlos Theron’s “Poker Face,” a Madrid de Cine market premiere.
Scoring a solid Euros 1.1 million ($1.4 million) at the Spanish box office, the crime caper, with Julian Villagran, has also sold to Japan (Zazie Films), South Korea (Line Tree Ent.) and Brazil (Five Filmes).
Lap TV has renewed pan-Latin American rights on “Brain Drain” and “Road to Santiago.” Korea’s Sonamu Pictures has acquired the Harvard-set gross-out comedy “Brian Drain 2”; Turkey’s Mir Yapin (aka Duet Films) purchased Oskar Aibar’s critically acclaimed “The Forest,” a Spanish Civil War-set sci-fi drama.
“The devaluation of Japan’s yen means the minimum guarantees put up on films have gone down. But Japan has at least come back to the table, and is buying,” said DeAPlaneta Intl. sales manager Gorka Bilbao.
He added: “Turkish distributors are now buying across a wide range of films, though they can require 35mm prints. Latin American pay TV sector is one of the most vibrant markets around the world, although the large question is whether films can clinch a pay TV deal and SVOD deal without holdbacks on the latter.”
For Bilbao, the key to Spanish film exports, a subject to be analyzed on Tuesday at a Fapae presentation of 2012 export stats, will not be international market trends so much as the sales potential and volume of titles handled by Spanish sales agents.
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