US financier-distributor Tayrona Entertainment has acquired Latin American rights to Roland Joffe’s There Be Dragons and has committed to a 1,000-screen release before the autumn.

Tayrona, which also releases films in the US and Canada, has access to an $80m Latin American p&a fund that will support the release.

There Be Dragons screens in the market today [12] and stars Dougray Scott as an investigative reporter who probes a decades-old mystery involving his father and the founder of the Opus Dei sect. Wes Bentley and Olga Kurylenko also star and Ignacio Gomez Sancha, Joffe and Ignacio Nunez produced.

Samuel Goldwyn Films will release in the US on May 6 and Aurum will open the epic in Spain on Mar 25.

“We are very pleased to have made this agreement with Tayrona, a dynamic company that understands the value and sensibility of There Be Dragons,” Nunez said. “Tayrona’s prior connection to Roland on The Mission makes the deal even more attractive.”

There Be Dragons is by far Roland Joffe’s best film ever and we’re very proud and honoured to now be part of it,” Tayrona Entertainment James Ordonez said.

Nunez and attorney Robert Nau negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers with Ordonez and Lars Bjorck for Tayrona.