Italian horror-thriller The Spiral secures North American deal with US cinema release planned
Le Pacte has secured North American distribution for The Spiral, a horror-thriller from Italian director Paolo Strippoli, and the deal includes a commitment to a U.S. theatrical release, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A theatrical release is a run in cinemas, rather than a debut on a streaming service. The company that will release the film in the United States and Canada has not been named yet and will be announced at a later date.
Le Pacte is a French sales company, which means it sells films to distributors in each country or region. It is also handling French distribution for the film. The company said the North American agreement could be extended to additional territories.
Buyers have already lined up across much of the world. Vertigo Releasing took the U.K. and Ireland, while MFA+ FilmDistribution acquired Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Palace Films has Australia and New Zealand, Pancinema has South Korea, and California Filmes has Latin America. Paradiso Filmed Entertainment is releasing the film in Benelux, the group of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Other deals cover Spain, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Romania, the Balkans, the Baltics, Bulgaria, Turkey, India, and Russia and the CIS territories.
The Spiral is known in Italy as L'Estranea, and it is the country's submission for the best international feature Oscar, the award for films in a language other than English. Paolo Strippoli directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Salvatore De Chirico. The cast includes Jasmine Trinca, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Romana Maggiora Vergano and Adriano Giannini.
The film had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Its North American premiere came in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was first runner-up for the People's Choice Midnight Madness Award. At the Sitges fantasy festival in Spain, Trinca won best actress, and the film received the Silver Méliès for best fantastic genre feature. In Chicago it won the Silver Hugo for best visual effects.
At home, the film has done well at the box office. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it has grossed $3.8 million in Italy, with more than 460,000 admissions since its October 8 release through 01 Distribution. Admissions count the number of tickets sold, so they show how many people went to see the film.
The production was led by Marina Marzotto and Mattia Oddone for Propaganda Italia, in collaboration with Rai Cinema, the film arm of Italian public broadcaster RAI. Kazak Productions in France, Tarantula in Belgium and Dinamo Film in Italy are co-production partners.
The news matters for the calendar because it gives the film a path to American cinemas. The U.S. date and distributor are still to be confirmed, so audiences there will have to wait for those details.
