Cannes Thriller ‘Sleep’ Sells to Magnolia’s Genre Arm, Magnet Releasing (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comBrent Lang Executive Editor Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to “Sleep.” The horror-thriller, which sounds designed to make you rethink your thoughts about sleepwalking, recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s critics week.
It was directed and written by Jason Yu, who worked with Korean filmmaking legends Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong before making his feature directing debut with “Sleep.” Magnet will release the film early next year.
The director’s previous collaborator, Bong, called “Sleep,” “the most unique horror film and the smartest debut film I’ve seen in 10 years.” So that’s some high praise from the director of “The Host” and “Parasite.” According to an official synopsis, “Sleep” “follows newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi), whose domestic bliss is disrupted when Hyun-su begins speaking in his sleep, ominously stating, ‘Someone’s inside.’ From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, Hyun-su transforms into someone else, with no recollection of what happened the night before.
Overwhelmed with anxiety that he may hurt himself or their young family, Soo-jin can barely sleep because of this irrational fear.
Read more on variety.com