Netflix has picked up Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour, for approximately $11 million after a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The streamer picked up the US and remaining international rights to the true-life thriller. Woman of the Hour was first pitched at TIFF a year ago by Kendrick and Stuart Ford, CEO of AGC Studio, which is producing and fully financing the film.
CAA Media Finance handled US sales of the project, which is based on Ian MacDonald’s The Black List script, and is said to have received multiple offers for the thriller. Netflix has also picked up the film for France, Italy, Benelux, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Indonesia and numerous other international territories.
In addition to producing and directing Woman of the HourKendrick also stars in the stranger-than-fiction true story as Cheryl Bradshaw, a bachelorette on the hit 1970s TV matchmaking show The dating game. But her fairytale date takes a terrifying turn when the bachelor, Rodney Alcala, drops his charming facade to reveal the truth: he is in fact a psychopathic serial killer and in the middle of a killing spree.
The film was shot in Vancouver and stars Kendrick Bradshaw as a struggling actor who decided to appear on the TV show but had an encounter with Alcala. Woman of the Hour came to Toronto without a U.S. distribution deal and had an initial public screening Friday at the Princess of Wales Theatre, a popular venue for acquisition titles.
Kendrick’s directorial debut, written by Ian MacAllister McDonald, did not sign an interim agreement between SAG and AFTRA, which allowed for a possible sale to a streaming giant early in Toronto’s film sales market. Netflix’s deal for Woman of the Hour marks the first major film purchase at this year’s TIFF.
Woman of the Hour Also stars Tony Hale, Daniel Zovatto and Nicolette Robinson. Producer credits are also shared by Roy Lee and Miri Yoon, among others.
8 p.m. September 11. Updated with confirmation of a deal from Netflix for the US and many international rights to the thriller.
