Magnolia Pictures has acquired North Americanrights to Nicolas Winding Refn's Danish underworld The Pusher Trilogy.

The trio comprises Pusher, With Blood On My Hands, and The Angel Of Death. The first filmwrapped in 1999 and the trilogy first played together as a complete work at Toronto lastyear.

The story interweaves gangster tales in which bitplayers from one film emerge as leads in another.

"These three films aresuperlative, accessibleentertainmentsand a complete revelation for me," Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles said.

"The characters and milieu are indelible, and bothindividually and as a whole, the Pushermovies represent a major film achievement."

"Like French films did in the 60s, or Italian filmsin the 70s, or Asian films of the 80s, I'm pleasantly surprised to see thatEuropean genre films like The PusherTrilogy are finally attracting the attention of American distributors likeMagnolia Pictures," Refn added.

"I think there's a definite cult following for thiskind of film. And ultimately it's a very familiar reworking of a universalstory: Hamlet, the greatest Danishstory ever told. People come up to me all the time quoting the film inDanish.Even people who don't speak Danish." Said Refn.

Magnolia's head of acquisitions Tom Quinn, head ofbusiness affairs Jason Janego and Bowles negtotiated the deal with NordiskFilm Sales' Sanne Arlo.