Kellan Lutz, Daniel MacPherson, Temuera Morrison, Rachel Griffiths and newcomer Teagan Croft are starring in Shane Abbess’ futuristic sci-fi feature SFv1.
Set during a period of interplanetary colonization, the film is Abbess’ follow-up to Infini, which has been sold to every major market and was released on digital platforms by eOne in Australia and by Vertical Entertainment in the US.
It’s shooting for nine weeks in Sydney, the outskirts of Sydney and outback South Australia.
“This is a bigger film with a lot more action than Infini,” says Eclectik Vision’s Brett Thornquest, who is producing with Abbess and Sidonie Abbene’s Storm Alley Entertainment and Matthew Graham’s Phonetic Images.
XYZ Films, which sold Infini to North America and repped Marc Furmie’s Terminus (produced by Thornquest and Tim Maddocks’ Maddfilms) is handling worldwide sales.
Lutz (The Expendables 3, Hercules 3D, The Twilight Saga) plays Sy, a mysterious stranger who meets Kane ( MacPherson), a lieutenant working for an off-world military contractor.
The pair must work together to rescue Kane’s daughter Indi (12-year-old Teagan Croft) and reach safety amid an impending global crisis caused by the company Kane works for.
Morrison plays the prison warden with Griffiths as a military general and Bren Foster and Ian Roberts as prisoners. Additional cast will be announced shortly.
Abbess, who co-created the story with Brian Cachia, said: “With intense characters and relationships, unique action, VFX and set pieces, the way we are telling the story is not only unique but monumentally ambitious in every department. To be able to make such an original film in such a risk aversive time is a real gift.”
The crew includes DoP Carl Robertson, production designer George Liddle, make-up/hair designer Jennifer Lamphee, costume designer Nicola Dunn, editor Adrian Rostirolla and composer Cachia.
Thornquest tells IF he is happy with the preliminary results of the digital release of Infini, which starred MacPherson, Grace Huang, Luke Hemsworth, Bren Foster and Luke Ford, and launches this month on Netflix in North America. “We are very optimistic of overages in the US,” he said.
XYZ Films is handling sales for a number of titles including upcoming thriller I Kill Giants from director Anders Walter, action-thriller Pilgrimage, starring Jon Bernthal, Richard Armitage and Tom Holland, and 6 Days starring Jamie Bell, Mark Strong and Abbie Cornish.