Berlin 2012: Magnolia Takes U.S. Rights To 'Emergo'

BERLIN – Magnolia has picked up U.S. rights to Emergo, the latest from genre team Rodrigo Cortes and Adrian Guerra, the director/producer team behind Buried and Red Lights.

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First-time director Carles Torrens directed the English-language chiller, which revolves around a team of parapsychologists called in to investigate strange phenomena in a spooky apartment building. Kai Lennox, Michael O’Keefe, Fiona Glascott and Rick Gonzales star.

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Emergo has already sold wide, having gone to Universum for German-speaking Europe, Momentum for the U.K., Alliance in Canada, Hopscotch Films for Australia and Presido for Japan among many international deals. The film was snatched up after bowing at the American Film Market last year.

Guerra produced through his Spain-based shingle Nostromo Pictures, with Barcelona standing in for California. The budget is under $3 million.

Magnolia will bow Emergo on VOD in late April ahead of a planned theatrical bow six weeks later, the same strategy the company used successfully for Lars von Trier’s Melancholia.

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Cortes and Guerra are coming off a great Sundance, where their Red Lights, like Emergo a paranormal activity thriller, sold to Millennium Entertainment for an estimated $4 million. Red Lights stars Sigourney Weaver and Cillian Murphy as psychologists studying a world-famous psychic, played by Robert De Niro.

It was the second big Sundance sale for the Spanish duo, who had their international breakthrough in Park City in 2010 with the buried-alive thriller Buried starring Ryan Reynolds.