Acquires rights to thriller; U.S. version called 'Abduction'

Smuggler Films has picked up remake rights to the 2009 French thriller "Rapt," about the 1978 kidnapping of Baron Edouard-Jean Empain, a French CEO and heir to the Empain Schneider Dynasty.

Smuggler is planning on mounting an American version called "Abduction."

Released in France last fall, "Rapt" has been nominated for a Cesar Award for best picture.

"'Rapt' is a high stakes thriller propelled by multiple agendas that could not be more timely. It has it all: kidnapping, mistresses, the avarice of corporate culture and the tabloid exposure of a family living a lie. Lucas Belvaux's original is a film that does not take the easy route with any of its narratives and unflinchingly honest characters and we are left the richer for that," Patrick Milling Smith, co-founder of Smuggler Films, said.