Sundance 2012: Robert De Niro Thriller ‘Red Lights’ Sells to Millennium Entertainment

Supernatural thriller Red Lights has been acquired by Millennium Entertainment. Sources say the deal for U.S. rights is valued at just under $4 million. 

Buried director Rodrigo Cortes wrote and directed Red Lights, which is playing in Sundance’s Premieres section and stars Robert De Niro, Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Olsen.

PHOTOS: The Scene at Sundance Film Festival 2012

Red Lights centers on two investigators of alleged supernatural phenomena — played by Murphy and Weaver — who appear to meet their match in a blind healer named Simon Silver played by De Niro. Cortés and Adrian Guerra produced; Cindy Cowan, Irving Cowan and Lisa Wilson served as executive producers.

The film has opened to mixed reviews. Cortes told the audience at a Q&A following the film’s Friday premiere that it cost between $15 million and $17 million and took 10 weeks to shoot in Barcelona and Toronto.

UTA handled the sale of Red Lights; Parlay Films is repping foreign rights.

Millennium has recently released Trust, Puncture and Trespass. The company will next release Oren Moverman‘s Rampart in February.

Other recent Sundance sales include Celeste and Jesse Forever to Sony Pictures Classics (North American, Latin American, Eastern European rights, around $2 million); For a Good Time, Call… to Focus Features (worldwide rights, $2 million); and Beasts of the Southern Wild to Fox Searchlight, which also grabbed worldwide rights to The Surrogate for just under $6 million Monday.

Sunday, LD Distribution picked up the thriller Black Rock for just over $1 million, and CBS Films acquired the drama The Words for a combined deal valued at $3.5 million. Competition documentaries Searching For Sugar Man and The Queen of Versailles found homes at SPC and Magnolia Pictures, respectively, on Friday.

Email: Daniel.Miller@THR.com; Jay.Fernandez@THR.com

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