Amazon MGM Studios has acquired all rights to Bluefly, Nimród Antal’s sci-fi action thriller starring Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and much of western Europe, Screen reported on Wednesday 11 November. Highland Film Group, which holds worldwide rights and is selling the film at the American Film Market (AFM) this month, made the sale. No price was disclosed.
The deal puts the English-speaking markets outside the US, together with Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia, in the hands of a single buyer. It landed on the day Screen Queensland announced that cameras were rolling on the Gold Coast, where Queensland’s arts minister put the production’s local spend at an estimated A$7.3m ($5.0m).
Key facts
- Film: Bluefly, directed by Nimród Antal (Predators), written by David Frigerio, William Eubank and Carlyle Eubank
- Cast: Russell Crowe, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Michael Chiklis
- Buyer: Amazon MGM Studios, all rights in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Benelux, Switzerland and Canada; seller: Highland Film Group
- Not in the deal: the US, which is absent from every territory list published so far
- Production: shooting at Village Roadshow Studios and on Gold Coast locations, with about 190 crew and an estimated A$7.3m local spend (Screen Queensland)
The deal
Amazon’s package covers 11 territories or territory groups, by Screen’s list. Highland has also sold Latin America to California Filmes, Poland to Monolith Films, the former Yugoslavia to Blitz Film, Romania to Karpat Media and Hungary to Media Squad, while Picture Works has taken India and airline rights, Screen reported. Neither Screen nor Screen Queensland names a US distributor, and Highland’s own site had not announced the Amazon deal by 19:20 CET.
Highland launched pre-sales at the Toronto festival’s market in September, when the cast was Crowe and Chopra Jonas; Michael Chiklis has joined since. The production draws on the Australian government’s Location Offset, Screen Queensland’s Production Attraction Strategy, the Gold Coast Film Commission and Invest Gold Coast’s screen attraction programme.
The film
The story follows a covert mission into the Congo to recover a missing high-tech military aircraft, with the team pushing upriver into militia-held territory. The roles have shifted since Highland first announced the project. Its August synopsis had Crowe as Broyles, the special-ops commander leading the mission. Screen Queensland’s release now casts Crowe as Benny, a former pilot, and gives the government operative John Broyles to Chiklis, with Chopra Jonas as the UN interpreter Myla Reese.
Michael Jefferson produces for Polite Society, with David and RuthAnne Frigerio for Broken Open Pictures, Deborah Glover for G2 Dispatch, Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier for Highland, Vanessa Yao Guo and Petr Jákl.
The Queensland connection
Bluefly is Crowe’s third Queensland-made film in recent years, after Highland and Broken Open’s Land of Bad and The Get Out, according to Screen Queensland, and Chopra Jonas shot The Bluff in the state. She led and produced that film for Prime Video, which also released her action comedy Heads of State; Highland’s August announcement called Heads of State Prime Video’s fourth most-watched film. Arts minister John-Paul Langbroek said in the agency’s release that the shoot would employ about 190 crew directly.
The deal is among the larger pre-sales of this year’s AFM. Epic Pictures’ The Marshal was reported sold to 13 territories as the market opened, Idris Elba’s In Laws launched sales, and Beta Cinema’s Claes Bang drama I Is Another sold to eight territories.
What is not known
The price, the release windows and whether Amazon will open the film in cinemas or go straight to Prime Video in its territories were not disclosed. Nor is it known who will release the film in the US.
Our reading
Highland is otherwise selling Bluefly the traditional way, market by market, as the Latin American, Polish and Indian deals show. Handing the UK, Canada, Australia and the big western European markets to one buyer is a different kind of sale: it places the film’s main English-language and European releases with a company that owns a streaming service and can choose between cinemas and Prime Video market by market.
The talent explains part of the appetite. Prime Video released Chopra Jonas’s The Bluff and Heads of State, and Highland’s August announcement listed Amazon MGM’s Highlander reboot among Crowe’s upcoming work, so the purchase extends existing relationships rather than starting new ones. The US is the gap. The next disclosure that matters is who takes it, and whether Amazon is among the bidders.
Sources
- Screen, Amazon MGM Studios buys major territories on Bluefly (11 November 2026)
- Screen Queensland, Bluefly brings Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas back to Queensland (11 November 2026)
- Highland Film Group, Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas to star in Bluefly, pre-sales launching at TIFF market (10 August 2026)
- Highland Film Group, Bluefly film page
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 11 November 2026 (USD 1.1127, AUD 1.6222; A$1.458 per dollar)