The filmmaking trio known as Rkss has previously brought us the films Turbo Kid and Summer of 84. Their latest is the slasher Wake Up, which had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas yesterday – and we not only have some reactions to the film that came out of that screening, we also have a clip from the film, courtesy of Deadline! You can watch the clip in the embed at the bottom of this article.
Written by Alberto Marini and based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, Wake Up centers on a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
The furniture store setting reminds me of an ’80s slasher that deserves to be more popular, Hide and Go Shriek.
Wake Up stars Benny O.Arthur (the Django...
Written by Alberto Marini and based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, Wake Up centers on a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
The furniture store setting reminds me of an ’80s slasher that deserves to be more popular, Hide and Go Shriek.
Wake Up stars Benny O.Arthur (the Django...
- 9/25/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
French Canadian directing trio Rkss are back with Wake Up, which World Premiered at Fantastic Fest over the weekend. Deadline shares a first-look preview clip out of the fest.
In Wake Up, which combines a strong timely message with a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
“As soon as we read the script, the core concept and the timely subject were so compelling to us, that we immediately could visualize the film and we knew we had to direct it and bring our own signature into the project,” said Rkss. “A slasher in a closed furniture store and warehouse makes an exciting playground for sure!”
Rkss —short for Roadkill Superstars— are based in Montreal, Quebec and have had their shorts and features screened around the...
In Wake Up, which combines a strong timely message with a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
“As soon as we read the script, the core concept and the timely subject were so compelling to us, that we immediately could visualize the film and we knew we had to direct it and bring our own signature into the project,” said Rkss. “A slasher in a closed furniture store and warehouse makes an exciting playground for sure!”
Rkss —short for Roadkill Superstars— are based in Montreal, Quebec and have had their shorts and features screened around the...
- 9/25/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Exclusive: Here’s a first clip for Studiocanal slasher pic Wake Up, which debuts today at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.
Heralding from the French-Canadian directing trio Rkss, comprising Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell and François Simard, the film follows a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
Pic is written by Alberto Marini, based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and presented by Borsalino Productions and Studiocanal. The film will next screen at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival as part of the Oficial Fantàstic Competition.
Starring are Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchists’s Dream), Charlotte Stoiber (Downfall), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with Irish actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror) and...
Heralding from the French-Canadian directing trio Rkss, comprising Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell and François Simard, the film follows a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
Pic is written by Alberto Marini, based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and presented by Borsalino Productions and Studiocanal. The film will next screen at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival as part of the Oficial Fantàstic Competition.
Starring are Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchists’s Dream), Charlotte Stoiber (Downfall), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with Irish actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror) and...
- 9/24/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Kino Lorber has snatched up North American rights to Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, the mesmerizing first feature from Vietnamese director Pham Thien An, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section in Cannes this year, where it won the Camera d’Or for best directorial debut.
The film fulfills the promise shown in Pham’s acclaimed shorts, including 2019 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winner Stay Awake, Be Ready, which was the inspiration for Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.
The film follows Thien (Le Phong Vu), a prodigal son with little direction in his life who, after his sister-in-law dies in a freak motorcycle accident, is tasked with delivering her body, and his 5-year-old nephew Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, back to their countryside hometown. Thus begins a journey across the mystical landscapes of rural Vietnam, a journey back into Thien’s own past and a search for his long-missing older brother,...
The film fulfills the promise shown in Pham’s acclaimed shorts, including 2019 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight winner Stay Awake, Be Ready, which was the inspiration for Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.
The film follows Thien (Le Phong Vu), a prodigal son with little direction in his life who, after his sister-in-law dies in a freak motorcycle accident, is tasked with delivering her body, and his 5-year-old nephew Dao, who miraculously survived the crash, back to their countryside hometown. Thus begins a journey across the mystical landscapes of rural Vietnam, a journey back into Thien’s own past and a search for his long-missing older brother,...
- 7/6/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bolstered by robust public-sector funds, a savvy new generation of filmmakers — many of them women — and world-class film schools, Catalonia has become one of Europe’s most vibrant regional audiovisual forces.
The proof can be found at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. More than 50 Catalan companies — some 100 executives and creatives — are expected to attend. Five films, four by new directors, have made the official cut at Cannes; six projects play in Marché du Film showcases.
The three biggest Catalan movies at the festival, Elena Martin’s “Creature,” Pham Thiên An’s “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” both in Directors’ Fortnight, and Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” playing out of competition, also underscore strong trends coursing through current Catalan cinema, including international co-production and an exploding animation scene.
“Co-producing is at the core of the European cinema industry and has always had more pros than cons,” says Vilaüt Films’ Ariadna Dot,...
The proof can be found at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. More than 50 Catalan companies — some 100 executives and creatives — are expected to attend. Five films, four by new directors, have made the official cut at Cannes; six projects play in Marché du Film showcases.
The three biggest Catalan movies at the festival, Elena Martin’s “Creature,” Pham Thiên An’s “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” both in Directors’ Fortnight, and Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” playing out of competition, also underscore strong trends coursing through current Catalan cinema, including international co-production and an exploding animation scene.
“Co-producing is at the core of the European cinema industry and has always had more pros than cons,” says Vilaüt Films’ Ariadna Dot,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The Permanent Picture
Another directorial debut we are big on is from a Catalan filmmaker who first got noticed with her short The Disinherited – a prize winner at the Critics’ Week in Cannes back in ’17. Laura Ferrés workshopped her film at the Torino Film Lab and Critics’ Week’s Next Step Program and moved into production on her debut back in September. Coined by the filmmaker as a depressing comedy, The Permanent Picture is a Spain-France co-prod shot in Barcelona with stars non-actors María Luengo and Rosario Ortega. Ferrés reteams with cinematographer Agnés Piqué. Volta’s Nadine Rothschild, Fasten Films’ Adrià Monés and Le Bureau’s Gabrielle Dumon produced the film.…...
Another directorial debut we are big on is from a Catalan filmmaker who first got noticed with her short The Disinherited – a prize winner at the Critics’ Week in Cannes back in ’17. Laura Ferrés workshopped her film at the Torino Film Lab and Critics’ Week’s Next Step Program and moved into production on her debut back in September. Coined by the filmmaker as a depressing comedy, The Permanent Picture is a Spain-France co-prod shot in Barcelona with stars non-actors María Luengo and Rosario Ortega. Ferrés reteams with cinematographer Agnés Piqué. Volta’s Nadine Rothschild, Fasten Films’ Adrià Monés and Le Bureau’s Gabrielle Dumon produced the film.…...
- 1/16/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Ferrés’ debut feature started shooting this week near Barcelona.
Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.
Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.
Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.
Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.
Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.
Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.
- 9/15/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- ScreenDaily
Ferrés’ debut feature started shooting this week near Barcelona.
Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.
Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.
Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta Films has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.
Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.
Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.
Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta Films has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.
- 9/15/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- ScreenDaily
Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales has taken international sales rights to Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing, drama “La voluntaria” (“The Volunteer”), toplining “Broken Embraces,” “Perfect Life” and Piggy” star Carmen Machi, one of the biggest marquee draws in Spain.
World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.
Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).
A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films.
World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.
Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).
A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films.
- 3/15/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona-based mini studio Filmax has acquired the international rights to Spanish-Portuguese co-production “The Open Body,” a horror story set in the early 20th century and plumbing Galician folk lore. The film marks the feature debut of Spanish director Ángeles Huerta.
Co-produced by Spain’s Ollovivo and Fasten Films, producer of Jorge Dorado’s “Pastor,” and Portugal’s Cinemate, behind Norberto López-Amado’s “3 Caminos,” the film is currently in post-production.
Buyers will have the opportunity to watch a first promo at this year’s Malaga Festival Spanish Screenings, which run March 21-24.
A new genre movie at Malaga, whatever its phase of production, is near bound to be on many buyers radar after Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” (“El Hoyo”) was presented at Málaga’s Work In Progress in 2019, where it was acquired by Latido Films.
Sold to Netflix, it became the most watched non English language film in the U.
Co-produced by Spain’s Ollovivo and Fasten Films, producer of Jorge Dorado’s “Pastor,” and Portugal’s Cinemate, behind Norberto López-Amado’s “3 Caminos,” the film is currently in post-production.
Buyers will have the opportunity to watch a first promo at this year’s Malaga Festival Spanish Screenings, which run March 21-24.
A new genre movie at Malaga, whatever its phase of production, is near bound to be on many buyers radar after Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” (“El Hoyo”) was presented at Málaga’s Work In Progress in 2019, where it was acquired by Latido Films.
Sold to Netflix, it became the most watched non English language film in the U.
- 3/8/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Carmen Machi stars in this political drama with hints of comedy, which is being filmed in Barcelona and Athens, co-produced by Fasten Films’ Adrià Monés. Ever since María (and Everybody Else) was presented in the New Directors section of the San Sebastián Film Festival in September 2016, there has been a big buzz around the follow-up by its director, Nely Reguera. At last, the beginning of the shoot for El nieto (lit. “The Grandson”) in Barcelona a few days ago confirms that her sophomore effort is under way. From mid-April, it will continue for six weeks in the Malakasa refugee camp (Athens), and its lead actress is popular thesp Carmen Machi, who appeared recently in It Snows in Benidorm and An Optical Illusion. Its cast is rounded off by Itsaso Arana (The August Virgin), Arnau Comas (Yesterday’s Two Nights), Dèlia Brufau, Yohan Levy and Henrietta Rauth. According to the screenplay,...
Director of 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner “The Disinherited,” Laura Ferrés will direct her awaited feature debut “The Permanent Picture,” which is a co-production between Barcelona-based Fasten Films and Le Bureau, based out of Paris and London.
International sales will be handled by The Bureau Sales, the sales arm of the French-British label.
A sort of “depressing comedy” – according to Ferrés – “The Permanent Picture” follows middle-aged Carmen, a casting director whose world collapses when her boss retires and the production company she works for takes a dramatic turn. Carmen will be forced to participate in a campaign for a corrupted party.
Selected by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Ferrés studied at Barcelona’s prestigious Escac film school. She developed her feature debut script at the Next Step Program, a workshop created by Cannes’ Critics’ Week, The TorinoFilmLab and the Moulin d’Ande screenwriting support program.
“The feature...
International sales will be handled by The Bureau Sales, the sales arm of the French-British label.
A sort of “depressing comedy” – according to Ferrés – “The Permanent Picture” follows middle-aged Carmen, a casting director whose world collapses when her boss retires and the production company she works for takes a dramatic turn. Carmen will be forced to participate in a campaign for a corrupted party.
Selected by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Ferrés studied at Barcelona’s prestigious Escac film school. She developed her feature debut script at the Next Step Program, a workshop created by Cannes’ Critics’ Week, The TorinoFilmLab and the Moulin d’Ande screenwriting support program.
“The feature...
- 9/22/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Nuria Valls
Valls already has 14 producer or exec-producer credits, including Eugenio Mira’s “Grand Piano,” Fernando González Molina’s Spanish blockbuster “Palm Trees in the Snow,” and Dan Krauss’ “The Kill Team;” all alongside her partner Adrián Guerra at Nostromo. Her latest productions include Alex and David Pastor’s “The Occupant” and Molina’s “Offering to the Storm,” both acquired by Netflix. Valls will shortly resume shooting on “Los favoritos de Midas,” created by Mateo Gil, her first TV series. “I’d like to do exactly what we’ve done so far: Making all kinds of movies we’d like to watch, not only genre.”
Oriol MAYMÓ
Maymó participated in the production of Rodrigo Cortés’ “Buried,” Marcel Barrena’s “Little World” and Pau Freixas’ TV-series “The Red Band Society” among many other titles. Now based out of Corte y Confección, he has produced Leticia Dolera’s Canneseries winner “A Perfect...
Valls already has 14 producer or exec-producer credits, including Eugenio Mira’s “Grand Piano,” Fernando González Molina’s Spanish blockbuster “Palm Trees in the Snow,” and Dan Krauss’ “The Kill Team;” all alongside her partner Adrián Guerra at Nostromo. Her latest productions include Alex and David Pastor’s “The Occupant” and Molina’s “Offering to the Storm,” both acquired by Netflix. Valls will shortly resume shooting on “Los favoritos de Midas,” created by Mateo Gil, her first TV series. “I’d like to do exactly what we’ve done so far: Making all kinds of movies we’d like to watch, not only genre.”
Oriol MAYMÓ
Maymó participated in the production of Rodrigo Cortés’ “Buried,” Marcel Barrena’s “Little World” and Pau Freixas’ TV-series “The Red Band Society” among many other titles. Now based out of Corte y Confección, he has produced Leticia Dolera’s Canneseries winner “A Perfect...
- 6/22/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes — August Diehl, star of Terrence Malick’s Cannes competition player “Hidden Life,” acquired by Fox Searchlight during the festival, will head the cast of Tom Schreiber’s upcoming “Beautiful Souls” (“Schöne Seelen”).
Lead produced by Ingmar Trost at Sutor Kolonko in Germany, and structured as a domestic co-production with Maze Pictures, “Beautiful Souls” has just been set up as an international co-production with Spain’s Fasten Films and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands.
At an initial financing stage – though the prospect of an international sales agent boarding early on look good – “Beautiful Souls” is scheduled to go into production in late summer 2020.
Described as a goofy drama set in the pop trash of the 1990s,“Beautiful Souls” portrays the impact of macro historical change on a motley German community of inveterate individualists seeking happiness down on Spain’s Costa Brava coast.
It turns on Freddy, a perpetual juvenile chancer...
Lead produced by Ingmar Trost at Sutor Kolonko in Germany, and structured as a domestic co-production with Maze Pictures, “Beautiful Souls” has just been set up as an international co-production with Spain’s Fasten Films and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands.
At an initial financing stage – though the prospect of an international sales agent boarding early on look good – “Beautiful Souls” is scheduled to go into production in late summer 2020.
Described as a goofy drama set in the pop trash of the 1990s,“Beautiful Souls” portrays the impact of macro historical change on a motley German community of inveterate individualists seeking happiness down on Spain’s Costa Brava coast.
It turns on Freddy, a perpetual juvenile chancer...
- 5/23/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Still from Looking for Eric
Due to the acquisition stop of European TV stations, even very successful European art-house distributors are facing a difficult situation, reported Birgit Heidsiek from European Film Market at Berlinale 2013.
In Germany, TV buyers such as Ard Degeto no longer acquire any art-house films, even passing by Oscar or Golden Bear winners.
“The main TV stations stopped buying films two years ago,” said Licensing & Acquisition Managing Director Ira von Gienanth at the Munich-based arthouse distribution company Prokino. “Until 2017 they don’t have any slots for art-house films.”
A year ago, a group of 24 independent distributors cited their protest in an open letter, but did not receive an official response.
While there is now less TV money coming in, the costs have not gone down although many cinemas have been digitized. “In Germany, 70% of art-house cinemas have digital projection so that we still need to do an inter-negative,...
Due to the acquisition stop of European TV stations, even very successful European art-house distributors are facing a difficult situation, reported Birgit Heidsiek from European Film Market at Berlinale 2013.
In Germany, TV buyers such as Ard Degeto no longer acquire any art-house films, even passing by Oscar or Golden Bear winners.
“The main TV stations stopped buying films two years ago,” said Licensing & Acquisition Managing Director Ira von Gienanth at the Munich-based arthouse distribution company Prokino. “Until 2017 they don’t have any slots for art-house films.”
A year ago, a group of 24 independent distributors cited their protest in an open letter, but did not receive an official response.
While there is now less TV money coming in, the costs have not gone down although many cinemas have been digitized. “In Germany, 70% of art-house cinemas have digital projection so that we still need to do an inter-negative,...
- 2/14/2013
- by Cineuropa
- DearCinema.com
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