Gaumont takes on When Animals Dream

Gaumont has picked up sales on Danish filmmaker Jonas Arnby’s When Animals Dream about a young girl who is hunted down by the inhabitants of her remote fishing village when it emerges she is a werewolf.

“Think Let The Right One In and Carrie,” says Gaumont sales chief Cécile Gaget. Dubbed a coming-of-age horror film, When Animals Dream is commercials and shorts director Arnby’s feature-length debut.

Newcomer Sonia Suhl stars as the tragic protagonist Marie, who wreaks a bloody revenge on her persecutors, with support from Lars Mikkelsen and Sonja Richter as her parents and Jakob Oftebro as her love interest.

Gaumont will unveil a teaser and photos for the production which started shooting in the remote Danish region of North Jutland in early September. The picture is due for delivery in time for Cannes next year.

The company is handling all territories excluding Scandinavia, which is in the hands of Nordisk.

Copenhagen-based Alphaville Pictures produced the €4m picture with the support of the Danish Film Institute and in association with Paris-based film financier Back Up Films.

In addition to launching When Animals Dream at AFM, Gaumont will also world premiere Alpine-set family film Belle and Sebastian and seafaring adventure Turning Tide, starring François Cluzet.

Children’s classic Belle and Sebastian, about a young an orphan and his mountain dog who live in a village on the French Alps, recently sold to Italy (Notorious), Australia and New Zealand (Icon), South Korea (Green) and Greece (Odean). Previously announced sales include to Canada (Christal), Germany (Ascot Elite), Switzerland (Metropole) and Hong Kong (Edko).

Gaumont will also show exclusive first footage of Volker Schlondoff’s World War Two drama Diplomacy which has already sold well into Brazil (Providence), Canada (Metropole), Germany (Koch Media), Switzerland (JMH), Greece (Odean), Benelux (Lumiere), the former Yugoslavia (Cinemania) and the Middle East (Four Star).

It will also premiere a trailer for Rose Bosch’s family comedy My Summer in Provence, starring Jean Reno as grandfather whose life is turned upside down when three grandchildren he hardly knows visit for the holidays.

The company will also pre-sell Intouchables directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s upcoming social comedy Samba, starring Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Tahar Rahim.