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Magnet Releasing has made a deal with the devil.
The company, the genre division of Magnolia Pictures, has acquired the rights to Satanic, a supernatural horror film currently in the script stage. The film will be the feature directorial debut of Jeff Hunt, who has helmed episodes of Fringe, Nikita and Person of Interest.
Magnolia will be selling international rights at the Toronto Film Festival.
Anthony Jaswinski wrote the script, which follows a group of college students visiting sites from Los Angeles’ “Satanic Panic” — a wave of fear in the 1980s and ’90s over reports of ritual sexual and child abuse. The students save a girl from a sacrificial ritual, then discover that she might be more dangerous than they thought.
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The film is co-produced by The Walking Dead‘s Circle of Confusion, with partner Lawrence Mattis producing and executive vp production and development Stephen Emery executive producing, and it’s part of a fast-expanding feature slate for the management-company-slash-production-house.
The company’s current projects include the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton and the Max Landis-scripted action-comedy American Ultra, and on the television side, PlayStation Network‘s upcoming superhero series Powers. It’s co-producing Satanic with MarVista Entertainment, with MarVista vp production and development Michael Moran producing and MarVista CEO Fernando Szew exec producing with Jaswinski.
Magnet’s earned its supernatural horror cred from releases including Godzilla director Gareth Edwards‘ Monsters, Ti West‘s low-budget The House of the Devil and the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In (which was adapted as Let Me In by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves).
Its Satanic pact was negotiated by vp acquisitions Peter Van Steemburg and head of business affairs and production Chris Matson, with Mattis and MarVista senior vp acquisitions and co-productions Stephanie Slack. The film’s release date has not been set.
Email: Austin.Siegemund-Broka@THR.com
Twitter: @Asiegemundbroka
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