Searchlight Acquires Worldwide Rights to “The Night House” while at Sundance Film Festival

Despite allegedly being off to a slow start, it seems the offers have begun at the Sundance Film Festival with Searchlight’s offer to buy the worldwide rights to David Bruckner’s The Night House, according to Deadline.

What’s Happening:

  • Each year, approximately 120,000 filmmakers, film fans, film critics, and film distributors descend upon Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers.
  • During the festival many titles are shopped by big name studios, distributors, and streamers but this year has allegedly been off to a particularly slow start, with deals not being offered as quickly as they may have been in the past.
  • It was the David Bruckner directed thriller, The Night House that scored the first major deal of the 2020 festival with Searchlight Pictures securing the worldwide rights to the film from Endeavor Content for $12 Million.
  • The film, scripted by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and starring Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Stacy Martin, Evan Jonigkeit, and Vondie Curtis-Hall, tells the story of a widow (Rebecca Hall) who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.
  • Searchlight secured the deal, even though there were four other distributors and three streaming companies bidding on the film.
  • David Bruckner has previously directed The Ritual for Netflix as well as one of the segments in the anthology film, V/H/S, both of which are also thriller/horror films.
  • Insiders speculate that offers will now start pouring in on numerous other films that have been showcased at Sundance, with this offer from Searchlight on The Night House being the one to open the proverbial flood gates for this year’s festival.