Lionsgate’s fantasy ‘A Monster Call’ has secured a multi-million dollar deal with major territories including UK (eOne) and France (Metropolitan).
Entertainment One is said to have closed a deal for around $4.8m and Metropolitan for $3.8m after the script, based on a book by Patrick Ness, received rave reviews. Ness wrote the book based on an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd. Irish actor Liam Neeson is set to star in director J A Bayona’s flick, which also stars Felicity Jones (The Amazing Spiderman 2) as a terminally ill mother. ‘A Monster Calls’ is a drama about 13 year old Conor O’Malley who attempts to deal with his mother’s illness and the bullying of his classmates by escaping into a fantastical world of monsters and fairy tales that deal with courage, loss and faith. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage) will be joined by producer Belen Atienza (Pan’s Labyinth). Neeson will take on the part of the monster but it’s currently unclear whether he’ll be performing through motion-capture or simply voicing a CGI creation.
The film is a co-production between River Road Entertainment, Participant Media, Lionsgate International, and Focus Features, with Belen Atienza producing. Executive producers are River Road’s Bill Pohlad and Mitch Horwits, Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, and Lionsgate’s Patrick Wachsberger.
Focus Features will distribute the fantasy drama in the US in October 2016.