TheWeinstein Company has acquired North American, UK and Australian/New Zealand rights to Japanesedirector Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective, which recently premiered at the Pusan and Rome filmfestivals.

Easternlight is handling international sales on the film which was sold to several otherterritories at the recent AFM. Produced by Japan's Movie Eye Entertainment andKaijyu Theatre, the film is scheduled for release in Japan on Jan 13.

NightmareDetective tells the story of afemale police detective (singing star Hitomi) who tracks down a man with thepower to enter people's dreams in order to solve a string of mysterioussuicide-murders. The film also stars Ryuhei Matsuda and Masanobu Ando, who bothrecently appeared in Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A.

Tsukamotois well-known at international festivals for films such as Tetsuo, The Iron Man and A Snake Of June. Thelatter won two awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2002.

The deal was negotiated by Laine Kline, TWC's senior vice president of business and legal affairs, and Michelle Krumm, executive vice president of acquisitions and co-productions. Easternlight general manager Gary Hamilton and president of international sales Jonathan Deckter negotiated for the company.

Arclight previously closed deals in Germany (Tiberius), Russia (Cinema Without Frontiers), Brazil (Imagem), and Turkey (Aqua Pinema).