Protagonist bites Lanthimos' Lobster

UK sales outfit Protagonist has boarded sales on Yorgos Lanthimos’ English-language debut The Lobster, which is due to shoot in Ireland this autumn.

Dogtooth and Alps director Lanthimos wrote the love story, set in a dystopian future where single people are given strict conditions for finding mates, with regular co-writer Efthimis Filippou.

Producers are Ireland’s Element Pictures, Lanthimos’ new UK production outfit Limp and Ceci Dempsey’s Scarlet Films. Partners are Faliro House in Greece and Carole Scotta of Haut et Court, who is the French co-producer and distributor. Jina Jay is casting.

The film won the ARTE International Prize for best project at the CineMart co-production market in Rotterdam earlier this year.

Oscar-nominated Lanthimos’ acclaimed drama Dogtooth won Cannes’ Prix Un Certain Regard in 2009.

“Everyone at Protagonist is over the moon to be working with Yorgos on his English-language debut,” Protagonist CEO Mike Goodridge told Screen. “It’s exceedingly rare that you read a script as bold and exciting as The Lobster, and we are so happy to be reunited with Element Pictures and teaming with Ceci Dempsey for the first time in bringing it to the world.”