November 9, 2015 - 12:54 AMT
Amazon Studios nabs Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves' "Neon Demon"

Amazon Studios has swooped into Santa Monica and the AFM to pick up The Neon Demon, the hotly anticipated American-Danish horror film from Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks and Jena Malone, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

The title — which Amazon will give a U.S. theatrical release next summer — is a project from Gaumont and Wild Bunch, who have both co-financed and are co-selling internationally. The Jokers will distribute in France, in association with Wild Bunch and Gaumont.

Produced under Refn's Danish outfit Space Rocket Nation (Only God Forgives), the film focuses on an aspiring young model who moves to L.A., only to find herself immersed in a group of beauty-obsessed women who will go to any lengths to have what she has.

"One morning, I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty," said Refn.

"After making Drive and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of The Neon Demon," he continued.

The Amazon deal was arranged by Vincent Maraval and Carole Baraton of Wild Bunch and Gaumont's Cecile Gaget.