Universal Pictures has picked up Spanish theatrical rights to Daniel Benmayor’s $8m historical action adventure film Bruc.

The deal was brokered by Edmon Roch at production company Ikiru, via Focus. StudioCanal is handlng international sales.

Based on a script by Jordi Gasull and Patxi Amezcua, Bruc stars leading Spanish actor Juan Jose Ballesta as a Catalan drummer boy who retreats to the high sierra to escape Napoleon’s army, but then manages to almost singlehandedly defeat them, bringing hope to the rest of Europe. Vincent Perez and Astrid Berges-Frisbey co-star.

Currently in post, the film is being produced by Spanish outfits El Toro Films and Ikiru Films with backing from the Catalan government and local broadcaster TV3 through their new joint funding scheme, which offers up to $2.5m per Catalan-language project.

Universal will release Bruc, which is being billed as the “Napoleonic First Blood”, in Spain on October 8.

Ikiru Films is also the co-producer of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s new drama Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, which is in competition at Cannes, and Andrucha Waddington’s hotly anticipated Spanish epic Lope, alongside El Toro with backing from Warner Bros.

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