Intermedia has acquired the remake rights to Swedish/Norwegian thriller Sleepwaker from John M Jacobsen and AB Svensk Filmindustri. The English language version will be produced by Mark Johnson Productions which has a first look deal at Intermedia.

The original film, a co-production between Filmnor, Svensk and Filmkameratene, was directed by Johannes Runeborg and written by Johan Brannstrom. It tells the story of a man whose wife and children disappear in the middle of the night and who starts to convince himself that he may be sleepwalking a double life as a killer.

The deal continues a relationship between Guy East, co-chairman of Intermedia, and Jacobsen, which began in 1987 when East acquired sales rights to Nils Gaup's hugely popular Pathfinder.

Mark Johnson, who earlier this year signed a financing deal with Intermedia, has credits including Rain Man for which he won an Oscar, Donnie Brasco, Galaxy Quest, A Little Princess, The Natural and Barry Levinson's upcoming An Everlasting Piece. The project will be supervised by Tiffany Daniels, president of production at Mark Johnson Productions.