09/11/2015 - Amazon Studios has purchased The Neon Demon by Nicolas Winding Refn, and Lionsgate has bought thrillers The Commuter and Our Kind of Traitor

Out in force in Santa Monica (see news article), French international sales companies certainly seem to have played their cards right at the AFM (American Film Market – being held from 4 to 11 November 2015) and a number of nice deals have already been announced. Amazon Studios, for one, has pre-purchased The Neon Demon [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Nicolas Winding Refn
film profile] by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn for the United States, a film being sold jointly by Gaumont and Wild Bunch.

Lionsgate, for its part, has acquired the American distribution rights to two thrillers from StudioCanal’s line-up: The Commuter (which is set to start shooting next year in New York with a cast led by Liam Neeson) and Our Kind of Traitor [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Susanna White (with Ewan McGregor in the leading role of this adaptation of the book of the same name by John le Carré, which will hit theatres in Spring 2016).

Also worth mentioning is the inclusion in Gaumont’s line-up of The Wandering [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was filmed with the utmost discretion this summer by Guillaume Nicloux (who competed at Berlin in 2013 with The Nun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Nicloux
film profile] and at Cannes this year with Valley of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), a fantasy thriller starring Gérard Depardieu and produced by Les Films du Worso and LGM Cinéma.

Worth mentioning among the other films announced for the various line-ups of French sellers are Road to Istanbul [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Rachid Bouchareb (who competed at Berlin in 2001, 2009 and 2014 with Little Senegal, London River [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Two Men in Town [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and at Cannes in 2006 and 2008 with Days of Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile] and Outside the Law [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) which is being sold by Elle Driver. Starring Astrid Whettnall, Pauline Burlet and Patricia Ide, the film (currently in post-production), the screenplay for which was written by the director with Yasmina Khadra, Zoé Galeron and Olivier Lorelle, follows a mother who finds out that her 20-year-old daughter has gone to Syria to join a jihadist group, and follows her there to try to convince her to come back to Belgium. Led by 3B, the film is being produced in association with Arte, Scope Invest, Tassili and Wallonie Bruxelles Images.

(Translated from French)