Netflix is closing in on a deal for Antonin Baudry’s “The Wolf’s Call” (“Le Chant du Loup”), an anticipated big-budget French submarine thriller, for multiple territories.
The streaming service is in advanced negotiations to pre-buy “The Wolf’s Call” from Pathé International for North America, Latin America, Spain and Scandinavia, as well as for France, where Netflix would get exclusive SVOD rights 36 months after the local theatrical release. The film will be released on Netflix in North America, Latin America, Spain and Scandinavia this summer. Pathé will distribute “The Wolf’s Call” in French theaters starting next Wednesday.
“The Wolf’s Call” will be released by independent distributors in other territories. Pathé has already pre-sold the film to Germany (Concorde), Japan (Klockworks), CIS (Total Films), Middle East (Gulf), Portugal (Cinemundo), Czech Republic (MediaSquad), former Yugoslavia (Fox Vision), Turkey (Pixel Yapim) and Hong Kong (Sun Dream), among other territories.
Budgeted in the €20 million range, the film stars Omar Sy (“Intouchables,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past”), François Civil (“Who You Think I Am”), Mathieu Kassovitz (“The Bureau”) and Reda Kateb (“Close Enemies”).
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“The Wolf’s Call” is set in the near future, on board a French submarine in crisis. While high-stake international tensions are building, a crew member unwittingly participates in an operation that will lead his country – and the rest of the world – to the brink of an apocalypse.
Alain Attal’s Trésor Films and Pathé Films produced “The Wolf’s Call” with Chi-Fou-Mi Productions. Tresor Films and Chi-Fou-Mi Productions recently produced together “Sink or Swim” and “In Safe Hands,” which are nominated for a flurry of Cesar Awards.
Although it would not be the first time that Netflix pre-bought SVOD rights on an anticipated French film, such deals have been rather rare because French TV networks have often imposed hold-backs on those rights. The new window release schedule which came into effect at the beginning of the year has likely made it more difficult for French TV channels to block those rights.