Paramount has bought the rights to Carlos Carrera's Mexican drama Backyard from the film's co-producers Indigo Films.

'The studio will help finance the project and then distribute it in the US and Mexico and other territories,' a Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) spokesman told Screen. IMCINE is promoting the film at Cannes.

A co-production between Mexican outfits Foprocine, Indigo Films and Eficine 226, the film, currently at script stage, tells the story of Blanca Bravo, assistant commander of the police in the city of Juarez, who tries to arrest a possible serial killer without any solid evidence.

Festival favourite Carrera, who won the animation short Palme D'Or at Cannes in 1994 for his short film El Heroe, is set to start shooting the film in Mexico in the coming months.