High Point Media Group has picked up the international sales rights to Dutch horror App, which encourages audiences to interact with their smartphones during the film.
The film, directed by Bobby Boermans, is produced by Amsterdam-based 2CFilm.
App is about a young woman who is subjected to blackmail via a malicious app that has mysteriously downloaded onto her phone.
The film links to a real phone app developed by 2CFilm in partnership with Service2Media, which uses audio digital watermarking technology that powers the likes of Shazam.
Audiences will receive the same sinister messages from the app at the same time as the characters in the film and are offered special access to complementary scenes and information beyond what is on the screen.
In the Netherlands, where Just Bridge is releasing on 110 screens, audiences are being encouraged to download the app in advance of the film’s release on April 4 with the message “Turn on Your Cell Phones”.
Kees Abrahams, co-founder of 2CFILM, said: “App is revolutionary in cinema – it presents an exciting challenge to the way audiences think about the medium, and this deal means that it has the potential to transform cinema around the world. We are looking forward to seeing how the concept is received by audiences far and wide.”
Abrahams is a former Sony Pictures Television president of international TV production and a CEO of 2waytraffic, the Dutch company he co-founded and which acquired rights to the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? franchise before being itself being bought out by SPT.
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