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EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features, Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment and Mario Kassar Productions are nearing a deal to produce a feature take of Ryū Murakami’s cult 1997 Japanese horror thriller novel, Audition.
The novel was previously adapted into a 1999 Japanese film of the same name, directed by 2x Cannes Palme D’Or nominee Takashi Miike.
The latest take on Audition is being written and directed by Danish multi-hyphenate Christian Tafdrup who is co-writing with his brother and frequent collaborator, Mads Tafdrup.
Focus is producing alongside Hyde Park’s Ashok and Priya Amritraj and Mario Kassar for MKP. EPs include multi-media, technology company Cineverse‘s Chris McGurk and Yolanda Macias, author Murakami, and Joyce Jun.
Before being remade in English by Blumhouse and Universal, Tafdrup’s original Speak No Evil earned 11 nominations at the 2023 Danish Film Awards, with Christian Tafdrup himself nominated for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Tafdrup was nominated in the same three categories for his 2017 drama A Horrible Woman, which won for Best Original Screenplay, and the 2016 mystery drama Parents, which was his directorial debut and won him the honor for Best Director. Tafdrup has also been nominated for a Danish Film Award as an actor, for his role in the 2017 adventure series Tinkas Juleeventyr.
As a frequent co-writer with his brother, Mads Tafdrup was nominated alongside Christian for several Danish Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Original Screenplay for Speak No Evil, and Best Original Screenplay for A Horrible Woman. Separately, Mads was also nominated in 2024 in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay for writing comedy-drama Hygge!
Christian Tafdrup is repped by WME and Subtitle Talent.
1999’s Audition received critical acclaim, with The Guardian listing it in 2010 as one of the 25 best horror films of all time.
Hyde Park Entertainment Group is known for pushing the boundaries of diversity and inclusiveness in cinema, and its movies have garnered worldwide revenues in excess of $2 billion. Hyde Park’s current slate includes the biopic of legendary tennis player and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe, written by
Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott and in partnership with Warner Music Entertainment; Rubik’s, a mind-bending cinematic treatment of the world’s bestselling toy in partnership with Fifth Season; the feature film adaptation of Richard Wright’s incendiary bestselling novel The Man Who Lived Underground written by Kenya Barris and in partnership with his Khalabo Ink Society; The Joy Luck Club 2, written by the original team of Amy Tan and Academy Award winner Ron Bass; the premium TV series adaptation of The New York Times bestseller The Santatorium, an atmospheric murder mystery at AppleTV+ in partnership
with Anne Hathaway’s Somewhere Pictures and StudioCanal; and more.
Cineverse has the fall box office success, Terrifier 3, which grossed $90M at the global box office. Their subsidiary, Bloody Disgusting, is a marketing company which propelled the threequel to great success.
Focus Features’ Nosferatu is $3M away from becoming the Universal specialty label’s highest grossing movie at the domestic box office, overtaking 2019’s Downton Abbey ($96.8M).
