Paris-based Pretty Pictures has acquired all French-language rights to Adam Low's Bacon's Arena, a BBC-backed documentary about artist Francis Bacon.

The project was sold by London-based Wavelength Pictures. The package includes DVD bonuses for a special release during the centenary of Bacon's birth in 2009. There are major exhibitions planned in 2009 at museums including New York's MoMA and the Tate in London.

Pretty Pictures head James Velaise said: 'Bacon is without doubt one of the most important Modern Master's, along with Picasso, Rothko and Pollock, but what is fascinating about this feature documentary is the unprecedented access the filmmakers have had to the Estate of the painter who died in 1992, and whose works are being sold for prices approaching those of Picasso.'

Pretty Pictures' forthcoming slate also includes David Mackenzie's Hallam Foe, Grant Gee's Joy Division documentary, and Reha Erdem's Times and Winds.

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