Per The Hollywood Reporter: “Magnolia Pictures’ genre arm Magnet has bitten into North American rights for the coming-of-age vampire film Let The Right One In.”
That’s very interesting news right there. I didn’t know Magnolia had a genre division. And to be honest I don’t know why they would need one. Their existence as one of the smaller distribution companies basically means they deal mostly with specialty films anyway. I guess they launched Magnet last September to help keep the Magnolia name associated with “classier” pictures like No End In Sight and The Great World Of Sound while still being able to handle cheap moneymakers like Murder Party.
Oh, before I forget, there’s a current event in this story. Like it says at the top, Magnet picked up domestic theatrical rights for the Swedish vampiric love story Låt den rätte komma in, or, in English, Let The Right One In. The film, which hits Sweden in April, is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvists.
Before you roll your eyes or start masturbating or whatever you do when you hear about a vampire movie, let me say that Låt den rätte komma in looks like a much different take on vampire than to which we are most accustomed. It’s about the budding romance between a twelve year old boy and a twelve year old girl who might be a vampire. Despite the presence of young folks in the lead roles, the tale appears to be very dark as well as darkly comedic. I can’t say more about the plot, because my exposure to the book is limited to a handful of book reviews.
Based on the international trailer, which you can see at the bottom of the page, the film itself looks like it could be great. The trailer doesn’t give away much, instead showcasing the visuals. At this point, that is plenty enough to get me interested.
Låt den rätte komma in is directed by Tomas Alfredson of the Swedish filmmaking Alfredsons (which includes Hans and Daniel). I figure we can expect a name change and a limited theatrical run sometime this year.