The smash French comedy-drama from Guillaume Canet stars Marion Cotillard and Oscar contender Jean Dujardin and drew 5.3m admissions in its native country.

Theatrical release is planned for the first quarter of 2012, with subsequent DVD and VoD roll-out.

Canet’s (pictured on set) follow-up to Tell No One  is a collaboration between Les Productions du Trésor, EuropaCorp, Caneo Films and M6 Films.

Benoit Magimel also stars in the story about a group of friends who take a revealing beach holiday following the death of a friend. The film premiered in Toronto last autumn.

MPI Media Group evp Greg Newman negotiated the deal with EuropaCorp international sales manager Cécile Fouché.

  • Strand Releasing has acquired all US rights to Bavo Defurne’s North Sea Texas from Wavelength Pictures. The Flemish-Belgian coming-of-age tale is set to receive its US premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival which kicks off on Jan 5.
  • Dimension Films has picked up the upcoming heist caper The Black Marks from Darius Films. Kurt Russell, Matt Dillon and Jay Baruchel star in Jonathan Sobol’s film about a lowly motorbike rider and art thief who agrees with his shady brother to do one last job. Production is set to begin this month.