EXCLUSIVE: This year’s Directors’ Fortnight lineup features a familiar tale in We Are What We Are, the American remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s 2010 Directors’ Fortnight selection Somos Lo Que Hay. Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner star in Mickle’s version as sisters forced to take on their family’s gruesome tradition after their mother’s death. Pic debuts in the same sidebar where the original first caught producer Andrew D. Corkin’s eye three years ago. Corkin’s Uncorked Productions optioned US remake rights with Rodrigo Bellott, took it to Memento Films’ Nick Shumaker, and tapped Jim Mickle (Stake Land) to co-write and direct. Linda Moran from Belladonna Productions and Jack Turner rounded out the producing team.
Mickle describes his version as a “call and response” companion piece to the Mexican original, which told a different version of the cannibalistic family tale. Memento Films is already plotting franchise sales at Cannes, with Finnish director AJ Annila tapped to direct a prequel written by We Are What We Are co-scribe Nick Damici and Grau himself developing a 2014 sequel. eOne snatched up the pic out of Sundance and will release it theatrically. Check out Deadline’s exclusive clip: