FilmSharks Snags Argentine Horror Sensation, ‘History of the Occult’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Worldwide and remake rights to Argentine political horror pic, “History of the Occult,” has been snapped up by leading Buenos Aires-based sales and production company, FilmSharks International.
According to FilmSharks’ CEO Guido Rud, advanced talks are underway with a streaming giant while a major U.S. genre producer is eyeing it for a remake, which FilmSharks subsidiary, The Remake Company, handles.
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Filmed in black and white and set in the 1980s, “History of the Occult” takes place during the last broadcast of the #1 news show on TV, “60 Minutes Before Midnight.” A band of journalists are racing against time to convince the lead guest, Adrian Marcato, to expose a conspiracy that connects their corrupt government to an actual coven.
Marcato is played by veteran Argentine film, theatre and commercials actor German Baudino whose credits include “Abrakadabra,” 2017’s “Los Olvidados” and “Dia de los Muertos.”
The feature debut of Christian Ponce, whose animated series “The Kirlian Frequency” plays on Netflix, has snagged several awards, among them the Le Film Français prize at Cannes’ Blood Window sidebar where it premiered; the Black Tulip best film honor at Amsterdam’s Imagine Festival; and the best director and audience prizes in the Terror Molins Festival’s Videodrome sidebar.
Regional prizes include the best debut feature and best actor awards from Argentina’s category “A” Mar del Plata Film Festival and best film and script recognitions from Uruguay’s horror and fantasy film festival Nox.
Film played at Spain’s premier fantastic film festival, Sitges, where it was picked up by Spain-based Filmin and has become one of the streamer’s biggest hits in recent times.
“Since Cannes and Sitges, this genre gem has been a critics and festival pleaser until it became Spain’s digital market sweetheart, creating a very strong buzz for international buyers; we already have major territories under discussions,” said Rud.
“FilmSharks has been doing amazingly well with elevated genre films like ‘Macabre,’ ‘Play with Me,’ ‘Ferocious Wolf,’ ‘Legions,’ ‘The Shadow of the Rooster’ and, most recently, ‘Virtual Reality,’” Rud noted.
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