Magnet Releasing Boards 'Hobo With a Shotgun'

Magnet Releasing has picked up U.S. distribution rights to the genre flick Hobo With a Shotgun. The company plans a release in 2011.

The film, which stars Rutger Hauer as a homeless vigilante in an exploitation workout, will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next month as part of the Park City at Midnight section.

Jason Eisener, who screened a short film at the festival in 2009, directed the feature project. The helmer won a contest at the SXSW film festival to create an original trailer like those featured in the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double-feature Grindhouse, and he then expanded it into this full-length feature.

As a throwback exercise in grindhouse gore, the movie features Hauer as a drifter who wanders into a crime-ridden town, decides he's had enough and takes after the local crime boss with a shotgun.

“Pure blood-drunk, bat-shit-crazy fun," said Magnet exec Tom Quinn. "Both Jason Eisener and Rutger Hauer were born to make Hobo."

Magnet, the genre wing of Magnolia Pictures, also has the films I Saw the Devil and The Troll Hunter screening at the fest. It has recently released Let the Right One In, Centurion, Bronson and Monsters.

Quinn negotiated the deal with TF1 International exec Nicolas Eschbach. 

"May god have mercy on Magnet for having the bravery to unleash the madness that is Hobo With a Shotgun,” said Eisener. “We're taking a car ride to hell with this film and I can’t think of a better team to be riding shotgun."