According to Variety, Magnolia Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to the psychological thriller The Ones Below and is planning a 2016 theatrical release.
Writer-director David Farr’s film feature debut premiered at TIFF earlier this year. Farr co-wrote the screenplay for Joe Wright’s 2011 thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn).
The story centers on two London-based couples who live in the same building. Expectant mother Kate (Clémence Poésy) and Justin (Stephen Campbell Moore, Burnt) live in the upstairs flat, and their new neighbors, Theresa (Laura Birn) and Jon (David Morrissey, The Walking Dead) live in the flat below. Initially attempting to befriend their new neighbors, the upstairs couple has a falling out with the ones below when a drunken dinner party unexpectedly has tragic consequences. After Kate gives birth, she becomes increasingly paranoid that the couple downstairs are a menace to her and her baby.
The film is produced by Nikki Parrott of Tigerlily Films in association with Protagonist Pictures, with funding from BBC Films and BFI. Executive producers are Dixie Linder, Nick Marston and Ben Hall of Cuba Pictures, Christine Langan and Joe Oppenheimer with BBC Films, Lizzie Francke for BFI, and Nigel Williams.
Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles said in a statement, “David Farr has concocted an incredibly satisfying and clever suspense thriller evocative of classics like Rosemary’s Baby and Fatal Attraction.” The indie label has additionally picked up the action-adventure movie The Last King, the cooking documentary from Pierre Deschamps, Noma My Perfect Storm, as well as Viva, a coming of age story set in Cuba.
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