South Korean sales agent Mirovision has sold Im Sang-soo’s Cannes competition title The Housemaid to IFC Films for the US.

IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring said, “The Housemaid is one of the most sheerly entertaining and sexy thrillers w e have seen in years. It establishes Im Sang-soo as a major filmmaker and reconfirms that some of the best filmmaking anywhere in the world is happening in South Korea. We couldn’t be happier that Mirovision entrusted this film to us and think it’s a perfect fit for all of our platforms.”

Based on Kim Ki-young’s 1960 classic thriller, Im’s 21st century remake tells the tale of how a housemaid wreaks havoc on a family after an affair with the patriarch. Previous Cannes best actress winner for Secret Sunshine, Jeon Do-yeon stars in Im’s remake as the lead.

IFC Films previously picked up Secret Sunshine, as well as other Korean films including Na Hong-jin’s thriller The Chaser and Kim Jee-woon’s kimchi Western The Good, The Bad, The Weird.

Mirovision ventures that with IFC’s track record of picking Oscar foreign language category candidates such as Everlasting Moments, Dog Eat Dog and Gomorrah, The Housemaid might also have a good shot for the next Oscars. The company stated that IFC is looking to launch the film at the Toronto film festival and release it in North America as early as the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011.

The film took 2.3 million admissions in Korea and is set for release in September in France, Hong Kong,and Singapore.

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