Cannes: IFC Midnight Nabs Frankenstein Adaptation 'Depraved' (Exclusive)

Yellow Veil Pictures will launch international sales on the film at the market and screen it for buyers on Sunday.

Two days ahead of the Cannes market opening, IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. rights to Larry Fessenden’s Depraved, a modern Brooklyn-set Frankenstein adaptation.

The film stars David Call (The Sinner), Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project), Alex Breaux (Bushwick), Ana Kayne (Another Earth), Chloë Levine (The Transfiguration), and Addison Timlin (The Town That Dreaded Sundown). Yellow Veil Pictures will launch international sales on the film at the Cannes market and screen it for buyers on Sunday.

Written by Fessenden, Depraved centers on a disillusioned field surgeon suffering from PTSD who makes a man out of body parts and brings him to life in a Brooklyn loft.

IFC Midnight is planning a fall release.

Depraved made its world premiere in March at the IFC Center’s WhatTheFest?! The film will next be seen at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans and then make its international debut at the Sydney Film Festival.

Fessenden, who heads the indie horror production house Glass Eye Pix, also produced the film, alongside Jenn Wexler and Chadd Harbold. Joe Swanberg, Edwin Linker and Peter Gilbert served as executive producers for Forager Film Co. Andrew Mer was co-executive producer.

No stranger to genre fans, Fessenden has been a producer and actor on several such films from the past decade that have premiered at SXSW, Tribeca, Fantastic Fest and Sundance. Depraved marks his return to the director’s seat.

“I am truly jazzed to partner up again with IFC; they handle my whole canon of films, and it feels like home," Fessenden said. "I look forward to getting this very personal monster movie out to the public in time for the Halloween season. Let’s do this.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Adam Koehler, acquisitions coordinator at IFC Films/Sundance Selects/IFC Midnight, and Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms and Joe Yanick of Yellow Veil Pictures on behalf of the filmmakers.

This story first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter's May 14 daily issue at the Cannes Film Festival.