Leviathan Productions Acquires Remake Rights To French Thriller ‘The Man In The Basement’

EXCLUSIVE: Leviathan Productions has acquired the remake rights to L’Homme de la Cave (The Man in the Basement), the French psychological thriller from director Philippe Le Guay, which was released just last year.

Inspired by a true story, the film is about a Jewish couple who sell their basement to a history professor, only to discover his secret life as an antisemitic conspiracy theorist. As the couple struggles to unwind the sale, the professor starts to indoctrinate their impressionable teenaged daughter.

Marc Weitzmann, Le Guay and Gilles Taurand wrote the script for the original film, with Anne Dominique Toussaint producing. Rights were acquired from Tournellovision and the remake will be produced by Ben Cosgrove, Frederic Golchan and Neal Israel.

Founded by veteran film producer Cosgrove and bestselling author Josh Foer, Leviathan Productions is an independent production company focused on acquiring and developing mass-market films and television content based on Jewish history, folklore, and literature, as well as stories about Israel. Most recently, the company announced a feature adaptation of Henry Ford’s War on Jews and the Legal Battles Against Hate Speech, the historical work penned by Victoria Saker Woeste.

Other previously announced Leviathan projects include adaptations of Leonard Slater’s book The Pledge — centered on the true story of the men and women who led the underground effort in the U.S. to acquire and transport planes to Israel in advance of the War of Independence — as well as the novel The Secret Chord by Pulitzer Prize-winner Geraldine Brooks about the rise and reign of Israel’s King David. Additionally, Leviathan set Anna Ziegler to adapt her award-winning play Photograph 51, which starred Nicole Kidman during its run in the West End, and tapped A Series of Unfortunate Events‘ Daniel Handler to script a horror film inspired by the Golem legend.