“Beast of War,” the upcoming shark thriller from Australian writer-director Kiah Roache-Turner (“Wormwood”) has been snapped up by Signature Entertainment for the U.K. and Ireland, and Well Go for North America.
Additional deals for the feature — being sold by Cornerstone Films, which launched the project at the 2023 AFM — include Dea Planeta (Spain), Just Entertainment (Benelux), NOS (Portugal), Galaxy Pictures (Australia & New Zealand), GPI (Baltics), Capella (CIS), TVN (Poland), Karpat Media (Romania & Hungary), Italia Film (Middle East), Tanweer (Turkey) and Filmfinity (South Africa).
Set during WWII and loosely based on real-life events, “Beast of War” follows a warship carrying hundreds of Australian soldiers across the Timor Sea to the frontline of WWII. Suddenly, Japanese fighter jets scream out of the sky, and within minutes the ocean becomes a hell of steel, fire, oil and blood. While a handful of soldiers build a makeshift raft from floating debris as they cling to their lives, their biggest battle is yet to come. In the dark below, the ultimate apex predator — a great white shark — hunts in the wreckage and is drawn to the smell of fresh blood in the water.
“Beast of War” is produced by Bronte Pictures’ Blake Northfield (“Streamline,” “Wyrmwood: Apocalypse”) and Pictures in Paradise’s Chris Brown (“Sting,” “Daybreakers”) and will commence production in 2024 in Australia and Malta.
Cornerstone is handling worldwide sales on the feature, which reunites the company with Roache-Turner having worked on his upcoming arachnophobia horror “Sting,” which will be released by Well Go on April 12 and by StudioCanal in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland and Benelux.