Blood flows in hot IM Global deals

Before he left town last Friday, Harvey Weinstein had been in and out of IM Global CEO Stuart Ford’s office in Berlin negotiating for the upcoming young adult adaptation.

Weinstein, David Glasser and Mark Gooder closed the US deal with Ford and attorney Craig Emmanuel of Loeb and Loeb and are understood to have made a p&a commitment in the $30-35m range.

TWC beat out several major studios and will release the film wide on Feb 14 2014 in what could become a day-and-date global launch with international distributors.

Ford, sales chief Jonathan Deckter, Tatyana Joffe and David Jourdan have licensed rights in the UK and Canada (eOne), Germany (Universum), France (Metropolitan), Australia and New Zealand (Hoyts), CIS (West), Benelux (DFW), Latin America (Sun), Scandinavia (Nordisk) and Spain (Aurum).

Deals also closed in Switzerland (Frenetic), Portugal (Lusomundo), Bulgari (Tandem), Czech and Slovak (Hollywood), Poland (ITI), Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia (Padora), Hong Kong (Intercontinental), Indonesia (PT Amero), Philippines (Pioneer), Thailand (M Pictures) and South Africa (Ster Kinekor).

Production on the Kintop Reliance partnership/IM Global film is scheduled to kick off in the summer with Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry and Danila Kozlovsky named in the cast.

Blood Sisters is the first instalment in Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy property that comprises six books and two graphic novels.

IM Global is financing with parent company Reliance Entertainment. Mark Waters will direct from a screenplay by his brother Dan Waters about two friends who attend a strict school for vampires where they team up with their guardian to battle evil forces.

Don Murphy and Susan Montford of Angry Films will produce with Michael Preger and Deepak Nayar of Kintop/Reliance. Ford will serve as executive producer.