Causeway Pictures licensed rights to DEADlocked and Vampires Vs. Leprechauns at Toronto.

Both films are scheduled to start production in Northern Ireland by the end of the year and deliver in spring 2013.

This marks the first time Los Angeles-base Inception Media Group (IMG) has pre-bought a film prior to the start of production. Inception has secured all North American rights in both cases.

“We’re excited to be working with Causeway and 7&7 on these two projects,” said IMG partner Andy Reimer. “The marketplace continues to demand quality horror films and we look forward to bringing them to audiences in the coming year.”

“We are very pleased to be working with Inception Media Group to bring these two exciting Irish genre projects to audiences in the US and Canada,” said executive producer Chris Patterson of Causeway. “Inception has the retail relationships we need to bring these titles to market.”

Belfast-based Spencer Wright both screenplays. Allan Gidea will direct Vampires Vs. Leprechauns, a horror-comedy about a town besieged by vampires.

The Tohill Brothers will direct DEADlocked, about a building of bankers trapped in a zombie epidemic.

Patterson and Paddy McCarney founded Causeway Pictures in 2009.