Neon has acquired the North American rights to Japanese director Genki Kawamura’s thriller Exit 8, a video game adaptation that bowed in Cannes and is next headed to Toronto.
Neon plans an early 2026 theatrical release for the arthouse spin on the 2023 indie game from Kotake Create that has players lost in a Japanese subway labyrinth, with the movie starring Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, and Nana Komatsu.
Exit 8 premiered in the midnight section in Cannes and is booked into the Centerpiece section at the Toronto Film Festival for a North American bow. Kawamura directed Exit 8 based on a script he co-wrote with Kentaro Hirase.
A synopsis from the producers reads: “The story follows a man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway, who sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?”
Kawamura won the best director award for his 2022 debut feature A Hundred Flowers in San Sebastian.
In Cannes, Neon picked up another Palme d’Or win with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident and also acquired the Jury Prize winner Sirât from Oliver Laxe; The Secret Agent from Kleber Mendonça Filho and Ugo Bienvenu’s animated adventure Arco produced by Natalie Portman.
Sarah Colvin, vp of acquisitions at Neon negotiated the distribution deal with CAA Media Finance, Goodfellas, TOHO and Story, who represented the filmmakers