The Wagner/Cuban Companies' Magnet Releasing announced on Dec. 6 that it has picked up U.S. distribution rights to The Mutant Chronicles, an independent SF movie based on the pen-and-paper role-playing game of the same name, which was completed last year but failed to find wide distribution. Magnet, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has set a March 27 video-on-demand release date for the movie, followed by a limited theatrical release on April 24.

The movie, directed by Simon Hunter, stars Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki and John Malkovich and is set in post-apocalyptic 2707, when a war rages among four giant corporations for control of the planet. An errant bomb shatters an ancient seal, releasing a horrific mutant army from its prison deep in the Earth. A squad of ragged soldiers, led by Mitch Hunter (Jane), descends into the earth in a last-ditch effort to destroy the mutants and save mankind. Philip Eisner wrote the script.

Mutant Chronicles scored a measly 20 percent on RottenTomatoes.com's Tomatometer, based on 15 mainly negative reviews, mostly from London and the United Kingdom, where the film screened last October.