Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights to Andrew Cummings Stone Age thriller The Origin from Sony Pictures Stage 6.
World premiering at the BFI London Film Festival in October, The Origin won acclaim for its unique approach to genre set in the Palaeolithic period. The script was written by Ruth Greenberg (Run) with Escape Plan Prods. Oliver Kassman (Saint Maud) producing.
The pic was nominated for five British Independent Film Awards, with a win for breakthrough performance for Safia Oakley-Green. Bleecker Street is planning a fall-winter 2023 theatrical release.
Set more than 45,000 years in the past, the horror pic follows a disparate gang of early humans who band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical being is hunting them down, the clan is forced to confront a horrifying danger they never imagined.
The films cast includes Oakley-Green (Sherwood), Chuku Modu (Captain Marvel), Kit Young (Shadow and Bone), Iola Evans (Choose or Die), Luna Mwezi (Needle Park Baby), Arno Luening (Divine Comedy) and newcomers Rosebud Melarkey and Tyrell Mhlanga.
Executive producers include David Kaplan, Sam Intili and Kristin Irving for the BFI, and Leslie Finlay for Screen Scotland. The acquisition was negotiated by Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy on behalf of Bleecker Street with Stage 6.
The Origin is the latest in a string of acquisitions for Bleecker Street. Other films include the recent Catherine Hardwicke-directed Mafia Mamma, starring Toni Collette and Monica Bellucci, and Laurel Parmets feature directorial debut, The Starling Girl, which is currently in theaters. Other films include Alice Troughtons The Lesson, releasing theatrically July 7, and Guy Nattivs Golda, starring Helen Mirren, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February and is set for an Aug. 25 theatrical release.