In November 2011, for the 43rd session of Wallimage, Les films du Fleuve proposed De Rouille et d’Os by Jacques Audiard. Six years later, the team reunited around The Brothers Sisters, a new project that was even more ambitious because of its original subject, its incredible cast… and its substantial budget. For this authentic western filmed in Spain and Romania, the talented French director has indeed summoned Jake Gyllenhaal, Joachin Phoenix, but also John C. Reilly, Niels Arestrup and the young Riz Ahmed, star of the wonderful HBO series, The Night of… The main part of the Walloon expenditure is concentrated on the creation of the special effects which will be done at Mikros in Liege (as for De Rouille et d’os). Macadam Car will take part in this magical shooting with its car-loges which have become unavoidable in the cinematographic landscape while Walloon technicians will be involved in the teams to try to make this existentialist adventure film a world event capable of shining on several continents.
To imagine that Nicolas Cage could come to spend the summer in Belgium was a utopia. Thanks to Umedia this has become a reality. The Belgian company is producing Mandy, the second feature film by Panos Cosmatos (son of the director of Rambo II, Unknown Origin or Cobra), an action film with a strong comic book feel, supposedly set in Canada. The team’s location scouting is striking and promises a disturbing aesthetic. Almost all the technical team will be Belgian (and mostly Walloon) while all the post-prod from image to sound and dailies management will be done at Dame Blanche Genval not used to work on this kind of projects with worldwide visibility.
Less known to the general public, Jim Taihuttu is nevertheless a star. Besides his activity as a director (he has already shot two feature films), he is indeed… a world-renowned DJ who works under the pseudo, Jim Aasgier. Noted with Rabat and, above all, the prodigious Wolf, the Dutch director (on the right in the photo above) is about to shoot a sulphurous war film that traces the journey of a Dutch battalion stationed in Indonesia at the end of the Second World War. For The East, he reunited with his favorite actor, the impressive Marwan Kenzar, while his production team chose to work with Benoit Roland (Wrong Men) who managed to bring all the post-production (except for the image editing) to Wallonia. The sound postproduction will take place at Studio l’équipe Wallonie and at Genval les Dames for the sound effects. The laboratory and -above all- the VFX will be taken care of by Mikros Image Liège.
Like Mandy, A good woman is hard to find is to be classified as a genre film. Without much surprise, it is Frakas who brought us this little social thriller, sharp, feminist in the devil, which evokes the meeting of Ken Loach, Quentin Tarantino and Park Chan-Wook. To succeed in seducing us with this very controlled budget, Frakas has multiplied the angles of attack: many Walloon managerial positions are involved, the technical industries are solicited for the shooting, as well as Mikros for the image postproduction, 11 days of shooting are planned in the studios of the Pôle Image of Liège for the reconstitution of the interiors. As the story takes place in Belfast, the exteriors will necessarily be shot there.
Alongside these international co-productions from different backgrounds, Versus offers us the new feature film by the tireless Joachim Lafosse. Continuing returns to the fairly epic vein of White Knights while focusing on the family relationships that form the fabric of almost all of the director’s films. Produced by Versus and shot in Morocco in the fall, Continue welcomes a renowned actress who is not really familiar with Joachim’s universe: Virginie Efira! She will travel through the wilderness with her son who is a social and academic dropout. Genval-les-Dames will take care of the sound effects and the Studio l’équipe de Bierges will mix the film. Mikros Image will do the VFX and all the image laboratory in Liege.
In addition to these attractive feature films, the Wallimage board of directors has also selected two series that have significant assets.
The second season of Public Enemy (Between Dogs and Wolves) follows in the footsteps of the first one, keeping all the major actors present since episode 1. Plus an actress discovered at the very end of the 10th episode, Pauline Étienne. Inspector Chloé Muller (Stéphanie Blanchoud) is confronted with a new case inextricably linked to her own history. What to further fuel the ambient paranoia. Most of the shooting will take place in Wallonia and one of the directors as well as the director of photography are Walloon, the canteen will be provided by Iris Soldani. Picture editing, sound editing and sound equipment are provided by The Post Box. The whole post-production will be supervised by Sebastien Demeyere.
Last but not least, Kwassa brought us a very special file: a documentary in four parts on the history of slavery, of great ambition both in its subject matter and in its scope, since this prestigious project will be widely broadcast around the world to celebrate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery next year. A part of the Slave Routes is composed of green-field shootings which were realized in the TSF studios in Liege. These images will then be animated according to a process that is not very common today, rotoscopy. Mikros Liège is in charge of this work of Benedictines. To do this, Bernard Devillers’ company recruited and trained twelve young people seeking employment in this technique, making them highly qualified artists in a niche where Europe is clearly lacking. Icing on the cake: Benuts will be in charge of the animation of the maps, and all the sound post-prod will be done in Wallonia.
