U.K.-based sales and distribution company Blue Finch Films has secured worldwide rights to “Zero,” an action thriller directed by Jean Luc Herbulot, known for his 2021 TIFF Midnight Madness selection “Saloum.”
The film has been selected for Sitges Film Festival’s first wave, with additional festival announcements expected.
“Zero” follows two Americans who awaken in Senegal with explosive devices attached to their bodies and a 10-hour deadline to uncover the reason. Guided by a mysterious voice on the phone, they must complete a series of tasks that inadvertently cause chaos in Dakar. Against a backdrop of growing anti-Western sentiment, the protagonists race against time for survival and redemption.
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The screenplay was co-written by Herbulot and Hus Miller, with Miller also producing alongside Paméla Diop, Steven Adams and Gary Dourdan. The cast includes Miller, Cam McHarg, Moran Rosenblatt, Roger Sallah and Dourdan.
Herbulot said: “I have always admired Sergio Leone’s Westerns, Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films, Jean Pierre Melville’s noirs, George Miller’s post-apocalyptic action and the Kim Jee-woon’s and Park Chan-wook’s of the filmic world — all strong ambassadors of a genre but also a continent or a country. I believe you can survey an entire country’s identity and mood by its best genre films and filmmakers.”
Mike Chapman of Blue Finch Films added, “After blowing audiences away with ‘Saloum,’ we are excited to be working with Jean Luc Herbulot on his newest vision – a visceral and kinetic thriller with a relevant political undercurrent. As soon as we saw a cut, we knew this was something special and we can’t wait for audiences to witness‘Zero.'”
Blue Finch’s international portfolio also features Sitges selections “Oddity,” winner of SXSW 2024’s Midnighter Audience Award, and Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s thriller “Steppenwolf,” which also played at Rotterdam.
