The production company Entre Chien et Loup has treated us to a very special project: The Man Who Killed Don Quichotte (“L’homme qui tua Don Quichotte”) is the new fabulous feature by none other than the great Terry Gilliam! The 55-day shooting is scheduled for November with Michael Palin and Adam Driver taking the leading roles. The bulk of the sound postproduction will be managed by the Wallonia-based companies Ecoute une fois and Dame Blanche while Be Digital will take on the very challenging SFX of this dreamlike fantasy.
“Mon ket” is another original project directed by Belgian actor (and first-time director!) François Damiens. It comes with no surprise that the film is produced by (Damien’s long-standing collaborator) Artémis. It is co-written with Benoit Mariage (well known for “Cowboy”) with additional writing credits for Matthieu Donck (known for “La Trêve”, “Torpedo”). The subject of the film has been kept secret but one can already expect a hit at the box office. Genval les Dames will handle sound effects and Digital Graphics will create the titles. Francois Damien will team up with his regular technical crew: Virginie Saint-Martin for photography, Pierre Mertens for sound and Paul Rouschop for production design.
In another vein, Tarantula brought a biopic about the late years of the life of Christa Päffegn, better known as Nico. In a cruel irony, the rock star, who lived in a world dominated by drugs, died prematurely in a bike accident at the age of 50. “Nico, 1988”, by Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli, will partly be shot in Liege. The Walloon city will be turned into Manchester and Prague of the late 80’s for the purposes of the film! This (re)location is made possible by Igor Gabriel’s rigorous location scouting. Dame Blanche Genval and Sonicpil will handle sound design.
Scope Pictures is the majority producer of another ambitious film named “L’échange des princesses” and directed by Marc Dugain. This period film, taking place in the 18th Century, depicts French Regent Philippe d’Orleans’ outrageous attempts to form “unconventional” marriage alliances with the Royal Family of Spain. Not only does the film boast an impressive cast (Lambert Wilson, Catherine Mouchet) including a handful of Belgian actors (Olivier Gourmet, Thomas Mustin, Vincent Londez, Patrick Descamps…) but also impressive SFX handled by Mikros. Editing will be managed by Studio l’Equipe (Wallonia), sound editing byThe Post Box, and sound mix by Mute&Solo.
Castles will also be part of the picture in “Le Manoir”, co-produced by Nexus Factory and Gaumont. This is a genre-film leaning towards pure comedy casting the up-and-coming French youtube stars and directed by the talented video clip maker Anthony Celerier (Tony T. Datis). Baraque à Films will take on editing and Dame Blanche (Wallonia) sound editing as well as sound effects. Studio sequences will be shot at Keywall in Marcinelle and FILM FX will handle special effects. A French film could hardly be any more Walloon!
Alongside these original cinema projects, the Board of Wallimage greenlighted three television projects.
“Les enfants du hasard” will be co-directed by Thierry Michel and Pascal Colson. In times when immigration fuels the sickest fantasies, the directors wanted to find out if integration was a gentle utopia or a true opportunity. Produced by Les Films de la Passerelle, Les Enfants du Hasard (Hasard is the name of the coalmine) will be released in June 2017.
On a very different production scale comes “Premier Homme”, a feature documentary of great ambition co-produced by AT-Doc. The film, revolving around the most recent discoveries in paleoanthropology and structured in four chapters. Each chapter relates to one major step in human evolution. The main challenge for this project will be to create special effects that meet today’s standards for the genre. Mikros Wallonia will take on the SFX challenge. The Post Box will be in charge of sound.
The final project receiving support is a Flemish series. Over the course of ten episodes, we’ll follow the thunderous “Jan de Lichte et sa bande”. The hero of this saga is based on the true story of a Belgian Robin Hood. The project has been entrusted to distinguished directors like Robin Pront (“D’Ardennen”). Matteo Simoni (“Marina”) and Stef Aerts (Belgica ) will take the leading roles. The crew will settle in Wallonia for 60 days out of the 90 scheduled shooting days and most of the post-production will be carried out in southern Belgium: Mikros will handle image, and Sonicpil will do sound.
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