Neon’s cerebral horror feature had to perform more than a few clever tricks on its flight to theaters.
Like many projects, the coronavirus pandemic pushed back its 2020 start date. Then, lead hunter Schaefer’s HBO hit went even further as a result of delays, which required some cast members to move on to other commitments, and the production to find new actors to join Schaefer. Had to force.
Writer-director Tillman Singer’s project was finally heading into pre-production in West Germany when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, prompting the German government to seize filming locations to house Ukrainian refugees. . It was an over-reaction to a humanitarian crisis, the team understood. But that left the production in need of other locations for shooting.
“A lot of different people have taken a lot of swings in tough times,” notes Ken Cao, the film’s producer and Waypoint co-founder, eventually reaching the starting line.
Finding a new actor to replace former star John Malkovich was a particularly challenging task.
“My team did this interpretation, where I knew where every white man over the age of 60 was located,” producer and Waypoint partner Josh Rosenbaum says of antagonist Herr Kong, written as a 60-year-old German man. Said about recasting. Eventually they went in a different direction, casting a much younger Dan Stevens in the role.
They also scouted new locations for the film, which follows Shaffer’s Gretchen, who is mourning the loss of her mother when she moves to a Bavarian Alps resort run by Stevens’ Herr Kong. As she settles in with her father (Martin Soukas), his young wife (Jessica Henwick) and her stepsister (Mila Love), Gretchen notices that her stepsister is behaving strangely. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman in a trench coat appears to be stalking Gretchen, leading her to discover a sinister plot.
The team declined to share the budget, but incentives to shoot in Germany made the project financially feasible. And though it didn’t reach the heights of fellow horror title Neon after opening in theaters on August 9, the Waypoint team says it’s more than happy with its $6.7 million haul.
“It’s a credit to Neon,” Kao says, to pursue the project, especially “at a time when a lot of people were moving to streaming.” Waypoint has a production and financing agreement with Neon, which is fully financed.
A high point for the team was screening the film at Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theater in Los Angeles, where they ran a 35mm print (the feature was shot on film).
Now, as the film enjoys its digital release, Waypoint is developing Singer’s next feature. The German filmmaker burst onto the scene with his film School Thesis, a 70-minute supernatural horror film. After And , audiences can assume that his third project will be a horror movie. But it is not clear what genre he will explore, only that it is said to be a step forward for the filmmaker.
“They’re very much like classic auteurs who did different kinds of movies each time,” says Rosenbaum.
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