MUBI Acquires Werner Herzog’s ‘Family Romance, LLC’ for North America, Multiple Territories (EXCLUSIVE)

MUBI has acquired the SVOD and TV rights to Werner Herzog’s feature “Family Romance, LLC” for North America, Germany, Latin America (excluding Brazil), Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The sale was negotiated by Film Constellation.

The film stars Yuichi Ishii, the real-life CEO of Family Romance LLC, a company that rents out human surrogates for his clients’ every need—a family member for a social event, someone to take the blame for a mistake at work, a stranger to help you relive the best moment of your life.

In the film, a mother asks Ishii to impersonate her long-absent husband, and reconnect with her teenage daughter. The situation becomes a tangled net of transaction and emotion.

The film, written and directed by Herzog, used a tiny crew, with Herzog serving as cameraman. It was produced by Roc Morin.

It premiered in the Special Screenings section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, and also screened at the 46th Telluride Film Festival and 24th Busan Intl. Film Festival.

Alongside Yuichi Ishii, the film also stars Mahiro Tanimoto.

Daniel Kasman, VP of content for MUBI, referring to Herzog as “one of cinema’s greatest visionaries,” said: “After showcasing his fiction and documentary work, as well as presenting retrospectives of the filmmaker over the years, it’s an absolute honor for MUBI to release ‘Family Romance, LLC.’”

Fabien Westerhoff, CEO and partner of Film Constellation, said: “We are delighted to team with MUBI to connect with Werner’s legion of fans, and look forward to the film’s summer release with our international distribution partners.”

As cinemas reopen, the film will receive theatrical releases with local distributors in the U.K., France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Brazil, India, China and Singapore over the next few months.