While there was a noticeable drought for pick-ups at the Sundance Film Festival this year, movie sales continue to trickle out from Park City a few weeks later.
In fact, Oscilloscope Laboratories acquired the North American rights to Albert Birney’s black-and-white fantasy odyssey “Obex” on Thursday, TheWrap has learned.
Birney starred in, produced, directed and co-wrote the surreal film with Pete Ohs. It marks the filmmaker’s solo, live-action directorial debut. Producers include Birney, Ohs, Emma Hannaway and James Belfer.
“The film follows Conor Marsh (Birney), a man living a secluded life with his dog, Sandy, until one day he begins playing Obex, a new, state-of-the-art computer game. When Sandy goes missing, the line between reality and game blurs and Conor must venture into the strange world of Obex to bring her home,” per the logline.
“I’ve long been captivated by the unique and thought-provoking films released by Oscilloscope Laboratories,” Birney said in a statement. “Their discerning taste and dedication to supporting independent voices deeply resonates with me and collaborating with them on ‘Obex’ is an absolute honor.”
“’Obex’ is dreamy, nostalgic, frightening and completely defies classification. It worms its way into your brain like an 8-bit video game you can’t stop playing. Suffice it to say we were completely dazzled by what Albert and his team pulled off,” Oscilloscope Laboratories’ theatrical distribution head Andrew Carlin added. “It’s filmmaking at its purest. Bringing ‘Obex’ to theaters across North America is going to be one of our great joys of 2025.”
Also an actor most recently seen in “I Saw the TV Glow,” Birney is repped by Fusion Entertainment. He has previously co-directed “Eyeballs in the Darkness,” “Strawberry Mansion,” “Tux and Fanny,” “Sylvio” and “The Beast Pageant.”
Meanwhile, Oscilloscope’s current slate also includes Cannes favorite “Universal Language,” opening in theaters on Friday. They’ve also released “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “Wendy and Lucy” and “Meek’s Cutoff” in the past.
OL will distribute “Obex” theatrically in the U.S., while Magnify will handle global sales at EFM. The deal was negotiated by Aaron Katz for Oscilloscope Laboratories and Lorna Lee Torres for Magnify.
