The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnet Releasing, genre arm of Magnolia Pictures announced today that it has acquired US rights from HanWay Film to Christopher Smith’s BLACK DEATH. Starring Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings), BLACK DEATH is a creepy, pitch perfect medieval period film that expertly channels such UK classics as The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General. Christopher Smith’s cult hit Severence was distributed by Magnolia in 2007.
BLACK DEATH made its US debut last week at LA’s Screamfest, where it took home several major awards: Best Director (Chris Smith), Best Actor (Sean Bean), Best Cinematography (Sebastian Edschmid) and Best Musical Score (Christian Henson).
Bean stars as Ulric, a grim emissary from the Church, who leads a young monk (Eddie Redmayne) and a band of violent vigilantes and war veterans through the English countryside. Armed with blood-chilling torture devices, their mission is to stamp out suspected paganism in a village that remains untouched by the black plague, even as the rest of Europe grimly succumbs to the pestilence.
The US deal was negotiated by Magnet/Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn with Tim Haslam from Hanway. Magnet is planning a first quarter 2011 theatrical release