02/06/2021 - The two groups are coming together to develop 12 genre projects per year, both feature films and series, building on the So Film de Genre residency programme

The Swarm by Just Philippot, one of the standout titles in the new wave of young French genre cinema

Genre films and series are on the rise, and a growing number of initiatives are taking shape in France with a view to surfing this new wave, with the American group Blumhouse often serving as their model. Following the creation of the Parasomnia Productions label at the beginning of the year, steered by Moana Films and Sony Pictures Entertainment France, it’s now the turn of the powerful sales agent Wild Bunch International to enter into the fray in partnership with Capricci, bringing about the birth of the Wild West label.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The two groups are joining forces to develop a dozen projects per year (feature films and series), building on the So Film de Genre residency (which notably gave us Just Philippot’s The Swarm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Just Philippot
film profile], which was awarded the Cannes’ Critics’ Week label in 2020 and which is at long last hitting French cinemas on 16 June via The Jokers, before being released by Netflix in the rest of the world). Wild Bunch will also head up international sales (pre-purchases, remake rights) on a selection of projects developed by the Wild West label, which will cover the full spectrum of genre films (horror, fantasy, science-fiction, crime thrillers, other thrillers, superhero films, etc.). The first selection of Wild West projects will be unveiled next week in the form of 12 French-language projects, with English-language offerings set to be welcome in future editions. Stealing focus among these works in progress is Les mains d’Orlac by Dominique Baumard, which is a new remake of Maurice Renard’s novel, a horror classic previously transposed to the big screen by Robert Wiene in 1924, Karl Freund in 1935 (starring Peter Lorre) and by Edmond T. Greville in 1960 (with Christopher Lee and Mel Ferrer heading up the cast).

(Translated from French)