GKids has scooped North American rights to stylish space-set French animation feature Mars Express from mk2 Films, which has also sold the film to other key territories worldwide.
Jérémie Périn’s debut feature, which premiered in Cannes and played in competition at Annecy, is an action-driven futuristic film noir that blends 2D and 3D animation and poses questions about humanity’s relationship with AI.
GKids will release the film in theatres in its original French language in addition to a new English-dubbed version in 2024 following a November 22 release in France via Gebeka Films.
mk2 Films has also sold Mars Express across the globe to a slew of territories including Madman for Australia and New Zealand, Capelight for Germany and Austria, Piece of Magic for Benelux, Leda for Latin America, Film Verleigh in Switzerland, Gutek in Poland, Flamingo in Spain, Sita Digital in China, Arthouse Traffic in Ukraine, Falcon in Indonesia, and Pictureworks for India and airlines.
Set in 2200, Mars Express follows a private detective and her android partner who are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. They find themselves navigating the underbelly of Mars’ capital city where they uncover a darker story involving brain farms and a secret about the robots that threatens to change the face of the universe.
Gkids president David Jesteadt said: “Mars Express is a timely and provocative story set in one of the greatest animated sci-fi worlds I’ve seen… It’s a film we have been excited about for years, since we saw the very first footage.”
mk2 Films’ head of acquisitions Olivier Barbier called GKids “one of the best independent distributors for animation in North America.”
Mars Express is produced by France’s Everybody on Deck in co-production with Je Suis Bien Content, EV.L Prod, Plume Finance, France 3 Cinema, Shine Conseils, Gebeka Films and Amopix.
Périn penned the script with Laurent Sarfati and the French voice cast includes Lea Drucker, Mathieu Amalric, Sébastien Chassagne and Daniel Lobé.
Mk2 will continue global sales for the title at the upcoming AFM. GKids also recently picked up North American rights to Studio Ghibli’s The Boy And The Heron, Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature in 10 years.
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