The pedigree of Berlin-bound US sales titles continued to pick up as the casting development emerged over the weekend. Exclusive International will kick off sales at the EFM this week and Universal will distribute in the US.

Cross Creek and Exclusive will jointly produce and finance the Whitey Bulger crime thriller and production is set to start in May.

Barry Levinson will direct Black Mass, about the feared South Boston criminal Bulger, who was betrayed by the FBI after he became an informant to bring down a rival crime family.

Bulger was captured in June 2011 in Santa Monica following a 16-year manhunt.

Cross Creek acquired the New York Times bestseller Black Mass: The True Story Of An Unholy Alliance Between The FBI And The Irish Mob by former Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerald O’Neill. Mark Mallouk adapted the screenplay.

Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Nigel Sinclair, Tobin Armbrust, John Lesher and Christi Dembrowski will produce.

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