NEON takes possession of Brandon Cronenberg’s Sundance thriller ‘Possessor’

NEON announced today that they have acquired U.S. rights to Brandon Cronenberg’s POSSESSOR, the sci-fi thriller starring Andrea Riseborough (OBLIVION, and BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE), Christopher Abbott (JAMES WHITE), Tuppence Middleton (THE IMITATION GAME), with Sean Bean (THE LORD OF THE RINGS franchise) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (THE HATEFUL EIGHT).  POSSESSOR, which made its World Premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, received critical acclaim with critics describing the film as “a surreal fever dream” and “unnervingly good at getting under your skin.”

POSSESSOR follows corporate agent Tasya Vos (Riseborough) who works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies – ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients.

POSSESSOR marks Cronenberg’s second feature film.  His debut ANTIVIRAL premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win a number of awards, including Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best New Director at the Sitges Film Festival.

Brandon Cronenberg said: “NEON is a hugely exciting distributor, and I’ve been eager to work with them for a while now. I’m thrilled they are taking on POSSESSOR in collaboration with Well Go USA, who made production of the film possible.”

The film is a Canadian/UK co-production and produced by Niv Fichman, Kevin Krikst, and Fraser Ash for Rhombus Media and Andy Starke for Rook Films.Executive producers are: Arclight Films’ Gary Hamilton, Ryan Hamilton and Ying Ye; Steven Squillante and David U. Lee of Leeding Media; Noah Segal and Adrian Love of Elevation Pictures; Simon Williams, Daniel Negret, and Vaishali Mistry of Ingenious Media; Dave Bishop; Tony Roman; and Doris Pfardrescher from Well Go USA. POSSESSOR is an Ingenious Media presentation, produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates, in association with Arclight Films and Particular Crowd. Elevation Pictures will release the film in Canada.

Jeff Deutchman negotiated the deal for NEON with Doris Pfardrescher at Well Go USA, and CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.  Arclight Films is handling the worldwide rights and co-repped the US rights. POSSESSOR will be released by NEON, with plans to be announced at a later date.  Well Go USA will handle the home entertainment release.