By “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy horror movie starring Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore, has sold to one of France’s biggest distributors, Metropolitan FilmExport, ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Match Factory is handling international sales on the movie, and MUBI just acquired the rights in North America, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latin America and Benelux, where they will release the film theatrically this year. MUBI has also acquired the movie for Turkey and India.
“We’re very proud to be acquiring ‘The Substance’ by a French director who had already shined with her feature debut, ‘Revenge,’ and has been able to modernize a genre that very few filmmakers can tackle with such artistry,” said Victor Hadida, Metropolitan Filmexport’s co-founder and president.
“‘The Substance’ is a film that was made for the theaters and we’re looking forward to giving it a large release in France, and it’s meaningful that MUBI is willing to work with a French theatrical distributor given the fact that local windowing rules will require them to hold the SVOD rollout in France for 17 months,” Hadida continued.
Plot details for “The Substance” have been kept under wraps, with its official description on the Cannes website reading: “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? You, only better in every way. You should try this new product, it’s called the Substance. It changed my life. With the Substance, you can generate another you: younger, more beautiful, more perfect. You just have to share time — one week for one, one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each… easy right? If you respect the balance… what could possibly go wrong?”
