Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Radius-TWC, the upstart distribution company that The Weinstein Company started with Tom Quinn and Jason Janego at the helm, is in negotiations to acquire U.S. distribution rights to Only God Forgives, the re-team of Drive helmer Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling that is getting underway in Thailand. I’m hearing that the negotiation is in the range of a $2.5 million minimum guarantee.

It is the second recent deal that Quinn and Janego made that involved Refn, after Radius acquired a remake of Pusher, the first film that Refn directed. Only God Forgives was a surprise entry in the marketplace. It was all but acquired last summer by Drive distributor FilmDistrict, but the deal never closed. The distributor didn’t see eye to eye with the filmmakers, and it once again became available. CBS Films, which just turned the acquisition The Woman In Black into a hit, was among the other suitors, I’ve heard.

Radius’s multi-platform strategy seems ideal for this picture, a hard R drama which has way more explosive violence than Drive. Gosling plays the son of a Florida-based crime syndicate boss (Kristen Scott Thomas), who is plying the drug trade in Thailand with his brother. When his addicted sibling gets involved in a murder and gets tangled up with a cop who calls himself the Angel of Vengeance, Gosling’s character, who is proficient in mixed martial arts, is compelled to seek revenge on behalf of his mother. There is swordplay, and a lot of slicing and dicing.

This would be the third high profile film acquired by Quinn and Janego, who bought the edgy comedy Bachelorette after its Sundance premiere. Gaumont and Wild Bunch have been working with CAA to broker a new deal for Only God Forgives.