From Variety

By Elsa Keslassy

Paris-based Backup Media has come on board to fully finance Tim Sutton’s “Donnybrook,” the adaptation of Frank Bill’s 2013 noir novel, which David Lancaster’s Rumble Films is producing.

On top of financing the film, Backup Media is currently negotiating distribution deals for Germany, Switzerland, Benelux and Austria. Manuel Chiche’s banner The Jokers is co-producing the pic and will release it in France.

Sutton’s fourth feature after “Pavilion,” “Memphis” and “Dark Night,” “Donnybrook” turns on a cash-strapped family man who competes in the Donnybrook, “a legendary, bare-knuckle brawl where a $100,000 prize goes to the last man standing.” The producers describe the film as a mix of “No Country for Old Men” and “Fight Club.”

“Between Frank Bill’s primal scream of a book and the controlled menace of Tim Sutton’s ‘Dark Night,’ well…[it] feels like we might be raising some hell,” said Lancaster, whose credits include “Whiplash” and “Nightcrawler.”

Backup Media, which is led by David Atlan-Jackson, Jean-Baptiste Babin and Joel Thibout, said: “Tim Sutton’s subtle vision, along with the original novel and script, makes for a perfect match to continue our collaboration with Rumble Films.”

Rumble Films and Backup Media previously teamed up on Fabrice du Welz’s “Message from the King” and Evan Katz’s “Small Crimes.”

“Donnybrook” will start shooting in August in Southern Ohio.

UTA Independent Film Group is repping North America.