‘Earthquake,’ ‘Night Watchmen’ Score International Sales for Covert Media

Covert Media has sold the Armenian disaster film “Earthquake” and fantasy thriller “The Night Watchmen” to multiple major international territories including Germany, Japan and Korea, Variety has learned exclusively.

Sales were made through Covert’s recently launched Lexica Films label,which began operations ahead of the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival with the aim to champion five to 10 foreign language titles per year. Senior VP of International Jim Harvey leads the sales for President of International Liz Kim Schwan.

“Earthquake,” which had its market premiere screening at the American Film Market, has been acquired by AT Entertainment for Japan and First Run Inc for South Korea as well as Movie Cloud for Taiwan, One World Movies for India, Moxienotion for Indonesia, Sahamongkol for Malaysia and Vietnam, and with Cine Star for Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia. The film has been submitted as Armenia’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film for this season’s Golden Globes.

Konstantin Lavronenko stars in a fictional account of the devastating 1988 Spitak earthquake that destroyed over 300 towns in Armenia, displacing more than half a million people.

“Earthquake” is directed by Sarik Andreasyan from a script by Aleksey Gravitskiy and Sergey Yudakov, with participation from Grant Barsegyan and Arsen Danielyan. The cast also includes Sabina Akhmedova and newcomer Viktor Stepanyan.

“The Night Watchmen” has been acquired by Splendid Entertainment in Germany, AT Entertainment for Japan and First Run Inc for South Korea. It has also been acquired by Movie Cloud for Taiwan, One World Movies for India, Moxienotion for Indonesia, Sahamongkol for Malaysia and Vietnam, Fox TV for Pan Asia, and Cine Star for Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia. The film had its market premiere screening at AFM.

“The Night Watchmen” is written by Oleg Malovichko and directed by Emilis Velyvis. The Russian-language thriller follows an 18-year-old courier who rescues a beautiful young woman from a band of strangely powerful attackers — leading him to discover an underworld of supernatural beings living among humans and the organization that keeps them under control. The film stars Ivan Yankovski, Lyubov Aksenova, and Leonid Yarmolnik.

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