Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg - P 2013
Getty ImagesSony has won the bidding war to pick up Winter’s Knight, the Viking-themed reimagining of Santa Claus.
The hot package hit the town Thursday evening and caused an immediate bidding war, generating interest from Warner Bros., Disney and Universal, among others.
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The script is by relative newcomers in the scribe world, Ben Lustig and Jake Thornton, but has Kon-Tiki helmers Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg attached as directors. Lawrence Grey and Marc Platt are on board as producers.
How hot is the project? Sources say Knight is a $1 million deal which is in the process of the closing, though it may take a few days. Columbia’s Michael De Luca led the charge to acquire it.
Knight is a re-imagining of the origin of Santa Claus, putting St. Nicholas in the mix with Vikings elements.
Lawrence and Platt previously teamed up on Section 6, another hot spec that caused a bidding war and eventually landed at Universal, also in a seven figure deal.
Ronning and Sandberg directed Kon-Tiki, which was nominated for a best foreign Oscar. The duo became a hot studio commodity when they got the gig to helm the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie but that project ended up being shelved for the time being. They are repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Sloane Offer.
Lustig and Thornton are repped by WME and New Wave Entertainment.
