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AFM ’09: Genius Products Acquires Edgar Allen Poe ‘Tell-Tale’
In separate deals, Genius Products and Alliance Films have acquired US and Canadian rights to the thriller Tell-Tale starring Josh Lucas and produced by Ridley and Tony Scott. Michael Cuesta’s updated tale is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart and centres on a widower who receives a transplanted heart from a murdered donor. Lena Headey and Brian Cox also star. The film premiered at Tribeca. Yarek Danielak and Matthew Chausse of Mirabelle Pictures International / Arsenal Pictures are selling international rights here at AFM. “We think this film is one of the rare gems of the marketplace which has flown under most people’s radar’s until now,” said Danielak, who recently announced the formation of the specialty sales outfit Mirabelle. “We expect to close a number of deals at the market now that North American distribution is in place.”
Are you ready to go back?
After a record-breaking box office run and an extended cut re-release, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is heading home to Digital.
Backrooms will be available to rent or buy this Tuesday, July 14.
In the film, Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Renate Reinsve (A Different Man) also stars in Backrooms.
Will Soodik wrote the screenplay.
I wrote in my review, “Backrooms is at once complex and sparse, but never repetitive. It might be set in 1990, but it effectively captures modern anxieties and isolation in a way that frequently makes your skin crawl. While the journey ultimately loses steam by its cryptic end, Parsons’ visual representation of the human psyche disturbs like no other.”
YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut based on his creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date.