ONE of the country's leading film companies has just done the local film industry proud by clinching a deal to distribute two popular movies locally.

Sanjeev Singh, Videovision Entertainment's director of acquisition and distribution, announced on the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival the acquisition of The Killer Inside Me and The Extra Man before their premiere screenings at the festival.

The festival opened on January 21 and ends on January 31.

The Killer Inside Me is based on the novel by legendary pulp writer Jim Thompson. It is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Winterbottom and stars Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba.

The Killer Inside Me tells the story of the handsome, charming and unassuming small town sheriff's deputy Lou Ford, who has a bunch of problems. Woman problems... Law enforcement problems...

An ever-growing pile of murder victims in his West Texas jurisdiction, and the fact that he is a sadist, a psychopath and a killer. Suspicion begins to fall on Lou, and it is only a matter of time before he runs out ofalibis.

But in Thompson's savage, bleak, blacker than noir universe nothing is ever what it seems, and it turns out that the investigators pursuing him might have a secret of their own.

The Extra Man is written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and stars Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C Reilly and Katie Holmes.

A sophisticated and moving comedy, The Extra Man follows Louis Ives, a lonely dreamer who fancies himself as the flawed hero of an F Scott Fitzgerald novel.

When a deeply embarrassing incident forces him to leave his job at an exclusive Princeton prep school, Louis heads to New York City to make a fresh start.

He quickly finds a nine-to-five job at an environmental magazine, where he encounters an entrancing, green-obsessed co-worker Mary.

But it's his new home life that really sparks his imagination.

He rents a room in the ramshackle apartment of Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), a penniless, wildly eccentric but brilliant playwright.

When Henry's not dancing alone to obscure music or singing operettas, he's performing - with great panache - the duties of an "extra man" for the wealthy widows of Manhattan high society.

These two men, separated in age by more than 40 years, develop a volatile mentor-apprentice relationship.

Through a series of urban adventures where they encounter everything from a leaping lion to a wildly jealous hirsute neighbour, from drunken nonagenarians to a shady Swiss hunchback, Louis and Henry form a memorable bond that bridges their differences.

Singh commented: "We are delighted to have scooped the much sought-after South African distribution rights to The Killer Inside Me and The Extra Man prior to their premieres at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

"We intend premiering these films at the Durban International Film Festival in July and thereafter we will release them in South Africa."

Video Vision is owned by pioneering film entrepreneur Anant Singh.