Lionsgate will finance and distribute the sci-fi thriller Kin, which is set to star James Franco, Zoe Kravitz and Jack Reynor.
In a pre-buy deal out of the Toronto Film Festival, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that the studio paid in the mid-to-high $20 million range.
Kin follows a recently released ex-con (Reynor) and his adopted younger brother who are forced to go on the run. Chased by a vengeful criminal (Franco), the feds and a cadre of otherworldly soldiers, their only protection is a found weapon of mysterious ancestry.
Dennis Quaid will also star in the film, playing the brothers’ father, while Kravitz joins the brothers’ journey as a trusted ally.
Jonathan and Josh Baker will direct the feature from a script by Daniel Casey, which he adapted from the Bakers’ short film Bag Man.
21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen — who produced Netflix’s summer sci-fi breakout series Stranger Things — will produce the project, along with No Trace Camping’s Jeff Arkuss, David Gross and Jesse Shapira. No Trace was the production company behind the last year’s Oscar contender Room.
The film is slated to begin shooting Oct. 24 in Toronto.
WME Global brokered the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.
