Cannes: Lars von Trier's Serial Killer Film Sells Wide

'The House That Jack Built,' a drama told from the perspective of a serial killer, was initially conceived as a television series.

International film buyers are still hot for Lars von Trier.

Distributors from across Europe, Asia and Latin America have jumped on The House That Jack Built, the latest from the director behind Nymphomaniac, Melancholia and Antichrist.

Danish sales outfit TrustNordisk inked pre-sale deals in Cannes for the upcoming film with, among others, California Filmes for Latin America, September for Benelux, Gutek for Poland and Moviecloud for Taiwan.

The deals were done without any cast yet attached to the film. Von Trier plans to finalize the cast this summer for a planned fall shoot.

The film is the story of Jack, a serial killer who has spent a decade aspiring to the art of the perfect murder. It will be set in the 1970s and 1980s, before DNA evidence was used in murder cases. The movie will be shot from Jack's perspective.

The House That Jack Built was originally planned as a TV series. Louise Vesth, who will produce the movie through von Trier's shingle Zentropa, unveiled in Cannes that von Trier plans to split the shoot into two parts so he can edit part of the film in between and adjust things for the second half of the shoot if desired.