The film from U.K. director Jon Wright has been billed as "'Gremlins' meets 'Straw Dogs.'"
This month's inaugural Cannes marche du film online has a horror feature for its digital catalog.
Cornerstone Films has picked up worldwide sales rights to U.K. director Jon Wright’s (Grabbers, Robot Overlords, Tormented) upcoming "creature feature" The Little People.
Described by Wright as "Gremlins meets Straw Dogs" the film is based on an original screenplay by Mark Stay (Robot Overlords) and Jon Wright.
Londoners Maya and Jamie escape their urban nightmare to the tranquility of rural Ireland only to discover malevolent, murderous goblins lurking in the gnarled, ancient wood at the foot of their new garden. When heavily pregnant Maya’s relationship with a local family turns sour, who – or what – will come to her rescue and what extremes will she go to to protect her unborn child?
The film reunites the Grabbers creature team; including prosthetics by Shaune Harrison who has worked on the Harry Potter films, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Avengers: Age of Ultron along with with creature designs by Paul Catling (Maleficent, Thor, Fantastic Beasts) and long time Wright collaborator VFX supervisor Paddy Eason (28 Weeks Later, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Grabbers).
The Little People is produced by Piers Tempest and Jo Bamford’s Tempo Productions (Military Wives, The Wife, Grabbers) with Cornerstone Films and Peter Touche (Unhinged, Military Wives, Blinded by the Light) of Ingenious Media executive producing. Janine Modder, who has worked on the Bond franchise since 1997, is on board the producing team, with production set to commence this fall in the U.K.. Cornerstone Films will present the film to the buyers at the upcoming Cannes Virtual Market.
"We are delighted to be working with Jon again and our partners at Cornerstone to deliver a film that I am confident will surprise, shock and thoroughly entertain audiences," said Piers Tempest.
"This is a one-of-a-kind page-turner of a script that does a brilliant job of marrying real scares with moments of pure entertainment," added Cornerstone Films’ Mark Gooder and Alison Thompson also noted. "Jon has a brilliant vision for the film and a great team around him to deliver on such a thrilling premise."
