Spanish mini studio Filmax has taken international sales rights outside Spain and France to award winning director Miguel Angel Vivas’ new project Kidnapped, starring leading Spanish actor Fernando Cayo.

Currently in production, the film will be an international co-production between Spain’s Vaca Films and Blur Producciones, and France’s La Fabrique 2 and will tell the story of a family who move into a new house only to then be held hostage by a group of hooded men.

Angel Vivas will direct and co-write the project with Javier Garcia, and leading Spanish actors Fernando Cayo (The Orphanage), Manuella Velles (Camino) and Ana Wagener (Biutiful) are confirmed for the cast.

Kidnapped is a film with great visual strength that has fantastic international potential. Where in the world is home security not a problem? Who doesn’t worry about it? This project gives me goose bumps, it’s impossible not to think that this could happen to you,” says Vicente Canales, head of Filmax International. “We’ve worked hard to have this film as part of our slate and I am very happy to be working with Borja Pena and Emma Lustres, the producers of Cell 211.”

Borja Pena and Emma Lustres of Vaca Films added: “The theme of this film is terror; total fear and the violence which causes it. While shooting we’re aiming for a realistic and direct tone that would transport the viewer and make them feel the same panic and distress as our protagonists. This is a topic which is both real and happening in today’s society. Our aim is to transport the spectator to that place, to turn the cinema into the scene of the kidnapping. We want the viewer to feel that fear and that anguish.”

Filmax will present the project to buyers at the Madrid De Cine screenings event, which runs June 20-22.

Vaca Films is also in development on another thriller titled Nowhere, which will be written and directed by Mauel Sanabria.