Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights from Bankside to the psychological thriller Inside starring Willem Dafoe and has set a March 10 2023 US release date.
Vasilis Katsoupis makes his feature directorial debut from a screenplay by Ben Hopkins based on an original idea by Katsoupis. Focus will distribute in the US and Universal Pictures International will release across the rest of the world.
Inside follows Nemo, an art thief who gets trapped in a New York penthouse after the heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, Nemo must use all his cunning and invention to survive.
Giorgos Karnavas produced alongside Marcos Kantis and Dries Phlypo. Serving as executive producers are Katsoupis, Jim Stark, Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Charles E. Breitkreuz, Martin Lehwald, Jean-Claude Van Rijckeghem, and Bankside’s Stephen Kelliher.
Katsoupis and Heretic’s Karnavas, whose executive and co-producer credits include Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness, 2021 Critics’ Week winner Feathers and this season’s Greek Oscar submission Magnetic Fields, said in a joint statement: “It’s a dream to have made this film, the way we wanted to, having the privilege to work with Willem and all these amazing filmmakers that supported us. Focus is the perfect place for the film, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
“With inside, Focus continues our commitment to first-time and international filmmakers,” said Kiska Higgs, president of production and acquisitions at Focus Features. “Vasilis’s thought-provoking film explores an experience we’re all now familiar with – isolation – and explores it in a visually stunning way.”
Dafoe’s additional upcoming projects include Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, which is currently in post, as well as Lanthimos’s next project And; Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl, and Walter Hill’s Dead for A Dollar. His most recent credits include Robert Eggers’ The Northman, Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, and Jon Watts’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Upcoming features for Focus include Todd Field’s awards season contender Tár starring Venice Coppa Volpi winner Cate Blanchett; and James Gray’s awards season drama Armageddon Time starring Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins, and Anne Hathaway.
The roster includes Champions directed by Bobby Farrelly and starring Woody Harrelson; A.V Rockwell’s directorial debut A Thousand And One with Teyana Taylor; Spoiler Alert starring Jim Parsons, Sally Field, and Ben Aldridge; Polite Society starring Ritu Arya; Bill Holderman’s Book Club 2: The Next Chapter with Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Andy Garcia; and Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers starring Paul Giamatti, which Focus acquired during TIFF.
Currently in production for the studio is Wes Anderson’s ensemble Asteroid City; and Lisa Frankenstein from debut feature filmmaker Zelda Williams, written by Diablo Cody, and starring Cole Sprouse and Katheryn Newton.
Dafoe is represented by WME and Circle of Confusion. Hopkins is represented by Curtis Brown Group.
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