SUNDANCE: Liddell Entertainment Grabs 'Silent House'

Last year’s sudden savior Mickey Liddell has swooped into Sundance 2011 to pick up domestic and most worldwide rights to the horror film Silent House. The Liddell Entertainment topper plans to flip domestic rights to a U.S. distributor. Thus far, Lionsgate is the main interested partner.

Liddell paid $3 million for the film and committed another $3 million to P&A. Rights to the U.K., Middle East and Scandinavia were not part of the deal.

Silent House, a gimmicky spooker that was filmed in one continuous shot, was a late addition to the fest’s Park City at Midnight line-up. Open Water filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau directed from Lau’s screenplay, which follows a family through an especially haunted new house. The film is a remake of the similarly styled 2010 Uruguayan film La Casa Muda.

It first screened at midnight Thursday, the opening night of the festival.

Liddell helped to rescue both Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Cannes premiere Biutiful and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Sundance 2009 comedy I Love You Phillip Morris last year when they had trouble finding well-resourced distributors. Liddell partnered with Roadside Attractions on both occasions.