IFC Buys ‘The Killer Inside’ AKA ‘That One Movie Where Jessica Alba is Severely Spanked’
IFC Picks Up Michael Winterbottom’s New Thriller at Sundance
Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck in 'The Killer Inside Me'
IFC Films has a history of picking up controversial thrillers and their record remains intact at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Their first pick at the Park City trade show is Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me, which reportedly played to a “noisy audience” at the Eccles Theatre on Saturday.
Based on the Jim Thompson 1952 pulp novel and adapted for screen by John Curan (The Painted Veil), The Killer Inside Me was purchased by the firm for a figure “just north” of $1 million, making the movie the ninth sale at this year’s Sundance.
The Killer Inside Me stars Casey Affleck as a sociopathic small-town Texas deputy sheriff. In the movie, Affleck’s sheriff violently beats characters played by Jessica Alba (the hooker!) and Kate Hudson (the wife!).
A trailer debuted late last year showing some of the disturbing imagery.
Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart) makes no apologies for the extreme violence: “The violence is shocking in the book and it’s shocking in the film,” he says. “It’s not a police procedural. The story is being told by someone who’s crazy. The story is the way he tells it and sees it, not the way it happened. The film has no sense of pleasure in the violence.
“The audience didn’t understand that when they watch this shocking violence, Casey is not the hero where the audience gets off on it. It should be shocking and brutal.”
IFC have already announced that The Killer Inside Me will be released this summer via a small theatrical run along with VOD channels.
The company also purchased the biggest noise maker from Cannes last year with Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist. At Sundance 2009, IFC landed the Nazi zombie feature Dead Snow along with the satirical In The Loop.
