Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has bought U.S. rights to “The Animal Kingdom,” Thomas Cailley’s creature-filled dystopian thriller which world premiered as the opening night selection of Cannes Un Certain Regard.

Produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord-Ouest Films, “The Animal Kingdom” was financed and co-produced by Studiocanal, which handles French distribution and international sales. The film is set in a world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures. It boasts stellar performances by Roman Duris (“Final Cut”), Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Paul Kircher (“Winter Boy”). Magnet will release the film next year.

Duris stars as François, who sets off to save his wife, who has been affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with help from a local police officer (Exarchopoulos).

“’The Animal Kingdom’ is a wild ride of a film,” said Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley. “Director Thomas Cailley has created an incredibly strange and imaginative world, but one that’s very recognizable.”

Cailley said, “The Animal Kingdom pushes the boundaries of humanity and nature, it tested us all to invent and combine complex technologies in the filmmaking process.” Speaking to Variety ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Cailley said he shot the movie entirely in real settings and didn’t resort to any green screen in order to portray creatures in the most realistic and compelling way. He read several encyclopedias about animals and worked closely with a comic book author, Frederik Peeters, for six months. The main actors also prepared for their respective roles for months. For his character, Tom Mercier worked with bird singers to learn how to “speak bird” by sucking in sounds instead of projecting them. Kircher, meanwhile, learned breathing techniques and special sounds, grunts and cries as his character transforms into a wolf.

Cailley, who co-wrote the film with Pauline Munier, was inspired by a wide range of films, from “A Perfect World” by Clint Eastwood to Yasujirō Ozu’s “The Only Son”, Sydney Lumet’s “Running on Empty,” and Bong Joon Ho’s “The Host.”

Cailley started working on the script in 2019, before the pandemic, but the reality soon caught up with the fiction. “Our story begins in a perfectly normal world that is disrupted by fantastical elements and when we started envisioning it was a pretty bold bet, we didn’t know if anyone would buy it. And then a year later we were on lockdown with curfews and scenes that seemed desperately absurd,” he said, adding that in “The Animal Kingdom” as in reality, the “system” is resilient, it adapts, it does everything to avoid questioning itself.”

The film marks Cailley’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed feature debut “Love at First Fight” which world premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight where won four awards in 2014. It went on top to win the Cesar Award for best first film, as well as best female and male newcomers for Adele Haenel and Kevin Azais, who play a young couple who enlist together Army survival program.

The deal for “The Animal Kingdom” was negotiated by Magnolia Pictures SVP of Acquisitions John Von Thaden, and Studiocanal’s Head of U.S. and digital sales, Aska Yamaguchi.

“The Animal Kingdom” will be released in theaters in France by Studiocanal on Oct. 4.

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