Belga Films starts big with a first co-production of a 40-million Euro film named “Kursk”. The film is directed by the Danish Thomas Vinterberg and features an impressive cast of first-category actors (Matthias Schoenaerts, Colin Firth, Lea Seydoux…). It tells the true story of a Russian submarine which ends up stuck on the bottom in international waters after an accidental blowing. Far from being quickly handled, the situation triggers long diplomatic discussions, which put the lives of the crew at risk. Amazingly enough, Belga will spend 16 million Euros in Belgium for this project! A significant portion of it will be allocated to the Walloon shooting crew, responsible in particular for important construction works as well as on-site VFX. The talented Olivier de Laveleye will lead the VFX team while Mikrosi will handle image and Macadamcar the lodging.
Thomas Vinterverg a déjà dirigé Matthais Schoenaerts dans “Loin de la foule déchaînée”
Scope Pictures provided the only French-Belgian co-production of the session. The “Collège de la Dernière Chance” is a comedy based on the popular childish jokes known as « blagues de Toto ». Scope unsurprisingly came with significant investments planned in Wallonia, including expenditures in SFX handled by L’Autre Compagnie à la Hulpe, new talents (some young Walloon actors will make their first appearance on the big screen), and the sound-track recorded by General Score.
Produced by Artemis, « Cavale » is the first feature film of the Belgian woman director Virginie Gourmel based on an excellent script by Micha Wald. This is a road movie involving three teenaged, slightly crazy girls. Taking place in Wallonia, the shooting will generate half a million Euros in local expenditures, as well as work for CQFD, Tacha Cantine, Eye-Lite Wallonie, KGS Development, Charbon Studio and many more Walloon technicians.
Wallonia has been attracting genre films for some time now, and this is for the best: not only does this type of film usually demand cutting-edge VFX- for which Wallonia thrives, but is also likely to generate strong returns. After “Raw” and “Muse”, Frakas once again came with a genre film in co-production with the Irish Sea Fever. This is literally a maritime version of “Alien”. Part of the shooting will take place in the studios of Le Pole Image de Liege and in post-production, Mikros will be responsible for calibration and VFX.
Mikros is also involved in the second genre project greenlighted during the session: “The Hole in the Ground” is a traditional psychological and fascinating horror film. This is also a first feature film marking the third collaboration between Benoit Roland (Wrong Men) and his trusted Irish partners from Savage, after “Pilgrimage” (already internationally sold), and “Good Favour” (likely to start a successful tour in international festivals). Four days of the shooting will take place in Wallonia, and the post-production will be entirely handled in our region.
Wallimage would not complete a session without selecting at least one animation film: there will be two this time.
Vic the Viking, known through 78 successful TV episodes is finally being turned into a feature film of over 10 Million Euros! There is a good mix of spectacular adventures and humour that has been initiated by Studio 100 in France and in Germany. The film will be co-produced by Belvision in Belgium, and hence partially made in the studios of Dreamwall. Dame Blanche will be responsible for the dubbing.
The last project greenlighted is on a far lower scale, almost craft, but nonetheless a very appealing project: this is the Season 2 of “Luchien’s adventures”, the story of a scatty dog, invented by Bruno Taloche and 3D-animated by Michel Truttin. The 250-day work will be taken care by the small Walloon studio Mediatiks. TV programmers are keen of those 1-minute episodes (also named “filler”) because they can easily squeeze them in between ads. They also certainly have a promising potential for sales worldwide.
