Lionsgate has acquired NorthAmerican rights to Gary Oldman-starring thriller The Backwoods from Spanish mini-studio Filmax Entertainment.

First-time feature directorKoldo Serra premiered the film at the Donostia-San Sebastian International FilmFestival in September. The mostly English-language film stars Oldman, VirginieLedoyen, Paddy Considine, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon and Lluis Homar in the story oftwo vacationing couples hunted by local villagers after they discover adeformed girl being held captive in an abandoned cabin.

Backwoods is a production of Filmax's Castelao Productions andIker Monfort's Madrid-based start-up Monfort Producciones in co-production withDivine Productions, Holy Cow Films and Videntia Frames Producciones.

The Lionsgate deal follows astring of high-profile recent announcements from the company, including a North American sale last month onTimothy Hutton starrer The Kovak Box to First Look Studios andthe casting of Ben Kingsley, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton in Brad Anderson's new Transsiberian. Filmax has also just launched new Argentina-based productioncompany Pampa Films with former Patagonik producer Pablo Bossi and directorJuan Pablo Buscarini.

The Backwoods deal was struck by Filmax head of internationalRafael Cabrera, head of sales Vicente Canales and CEO Carlos Fernandez, andLionsgate's senior vice president of acquisitions Jason Constantine and vicepresident of acquisitions Eda Kowan.

"We are extremely pleased tohave the opportunity to work with Lionsgate again," Cabrera and Canales said ina statement. "We are sure that this will be another great success for them, andthat we will continue working together on more projects in the near future."