Hyde Park International has acquired international sales rights to "Orion," a sci-fi thriller directed by Jaco Bouwer and starring Andrew McCarthy, Debby Ryan and Drew Van Acker. The film follows NASA interrogator Jim (McCarthy) as he probes Apollo (Van Acker), an amnesiac astronaut whose space mission ended in disaster, to uncover what killed the crew before their craft crash-landed on Earth. The deal matters as another example of a genre title building momentum through festival buzz before securing wider distribution.

Orion is set for a nationwide US release through Blue Harbor this autumn and has already picked up awards at genre festivals including FilmQuest, where it won Best Actor for Van Acker and Best Visual Effects, as well as a screening at the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. It is produced by Sunil Perkash, Van Acker, Elle Army and Scott Army, with a screenplay by Anne Vithayathil. Bouwer previously directed the SXSW-premiered "Gaia," while McCarthy is soon to appear in the third season of Netflix's "Wednesday" and Ryan will next star opposite Zac Efron in A24's "Famous."