THINKFilmInternational, the sales arm headed up by Mark Horowitz that launched this weekin Cannes, has picked up worldwide rights on David Cronenberg's $35m upcomingthriller Painkillers.

Thenew division will commence pre-sales this week on the project, which is beingproduced by Cronenberg's Crash and eXistenZ producing team of Robert Lantos andAndras Hamori and has been scheduled for a late 2006 release in North America.

Basedon an original screenplay by Cronenberg, Painkillers takes place in an anaesthetised society where painis the new forbidden pleasure and surgery, which is performed in public and oncamera, has come to be regarded as the new sex.