Toronto Hit ‘Sleepless Night’ to Be Remade By Warner Bros. (Exclusive)

French action pic Sleepless Night is the next Toronto Midnight Madness movie to get the Hollywood treatment.

TORONTO REVIEW: Sleepless Night

Warner Bros has acquired the remake rights to the movie for an English-language adaptation to be produced by Roy Lee.

A sort of Die Hard (in a nightclub) crossed with Taken, the movie centers on an undercover cop trying to get back his kidnapped son from a drug-dealing nightclub owner. Unfortunately for the cop, he loses his only bargaining chip – a duffel bag filled with cocaine that he and his partner stole in a botched job that got the cop not only recognized but badly stabbed as well. The cop spends the movie in the club trying to find the bag and his son, while evading goons from multiple drug lords and Internal Affairs police officers.

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Frederic Jardin directed the flick, which is distributed worldwide by Bac Films. Luxembourg’s Paul Thiltges Distribution and Belgium’s Saga Films co-produced the movie.

STORY: Toronto 2011: Will ‘Sleepless Night’ Get a Hollywood Remake?

Lee and Warners zeroed in on the movie even before it had finished its premiere at TIFF, though its successful screening got other parties interested and bidding. Sarah Schechter brought it into the studio and will oversee with Andy Fischel.

Original producers Lauranne Bourrachot and Marco Cherqui of Chic Films will serve as exec producers on the English –language adaptation. John Middleton will also exec produce.

Lee, who has Abduction coming out this weekend, has had success with such adaptations as The Departed and The Ring as his credits.

STORY: Screen Gems in Negotiations to Remake ‘The Raid’ (Exclusive)

This year’s Midnight Madness sidebar has proven a fertile ground for stoking Hollywood interest. On top of Sleepless Night, there’s You’re Next, a horror movie and potential franchise starter that got picked up by Lionsgate while its director, Adam Wingard, and writer, Simon Barrett, signed with CAA.

And people can’t stop talking about The Raid, which won a TIFF audience award. Execs have been angling to meet its director, Gareth Evans, and see the movie (yesterday, Warner Bros execs got a chance to see it when it screened on the lot).

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit