Anatomy Of A Cannes Deal: How Upstart North American Buyer Utopia Beat Out Bigger Rivals To Land Ali Abbasi’s Bracing Cannes Competition Film ‘Holy Spider’
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Utopia has finalized its North American deal for Cannes Competition pic Holy Spider, the noir thriller from Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi.
We told you the deal was all but there a couple of days ago.Based on a horrific true story, the film follows female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer (Mehdi Bajestani) who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers.
As the body count mounts, and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the ‘Spider Killer’ is embraced by many as a hero.The Persian-language movie has been one of the surprises of Cannes.
Not just for its shock value, but also due to its North American buyer: New York indie sales and distribution firm Utopia. The acquisition marks the company’s biggest and most eye catching acquisition to date.The deal was negotiated by Danielle DiGiacomo on behalf of Utopia, CAA Media Finance and Eva Diederix on behalf of Wild Bunch International.Sales and distribution firm Utopia was launched three years ago by filmmaker and musician Robert Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire and nephew of Francis Ford Coppola.
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