'Right' ripe for rewrite

Hammer, Spitfire acquire rights to Swedish film

By MICHAEL FLEMING

'Lat den ratte komma in,' the Tomas Alfredson-directed Swedish film, won the feature prize at Tribeca last week.

Hammer Films and Spitfire Pictures has acquired remake rights to "Lat den ratte komma in," the Tomas Alfredson-directed Swedish film that last week won the feature prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. Deal is worth seven-figures if the film gets made.

Spitfire will produce the redo, and set a writer shortly to pen an English-language version that will play under the translated title of "Let the Right One In."

Simon Oakes, Guy East and Nigel Sinclair will produce. Alex Brunner and Tobin Armbrust will exec produce along with John Ptak, Philip Elway and Fredrik Malmberg.

Ptak and Elway brokered the deal for Arsenal, which began plotting the remake rights deal back at the Berlin Festival. It recently emerged in a bidding war with Warner Bros., Paramount and Overture, with Spitfire and Hammer winning. The Swedish film will be released by Magnolia.

Hammer Films, the British production company that had its horror heyday in the 1950s and '60s, was revived last May and is funded by the Dutch-based fund Cyrte Investments, which was originally created as the private investment vehicle for Dutch media tycoon John del Mol, co-founder of Endemol and creator of "Big Brother" and "Deal Or No Deal." Hammer will remake films from its library, as well as original genre efforts.

"Let the Right One In" is a contemporary vampire tale about a 12-year-old boy who befriends a young female neighbor who moves to town.

The Swedish producers John Nordling and Carl Molder of EFTI will be involved as producers in the redo.