French production company, Indeprod, and Lisbon-based Luckymatrix have inked aninnovativeco-production dealfor simultaneous filming of two €1million ($1.1 million) budget featurefilmsin Portugal,ina 20-day shoot planned for the third quarter of2024.
Both films are auteur-driven, French language genre films – slasher horror pic, “Mr. Morgan,” and paranormal thriller, “Behind.”
The co-producers are seeking funding from the CNC and French broadcasters and plan to present both projects to Portugal’s cash rebate scheme – which offers up to a 30% rebate – when the call opens this spring.
They believe that the twin shoot will generateeconomiesof scale, lowering the cost per pic by 30%.
Thecreative team, crew, and equipmentwill stay in the same location, while shooting in two nearby locations – a lighthouse and a period building. They are currently scouting locations along the coast of Portugal.
Luckymatrix producer, Phil Oxsaid that“’Mr. Morgan’ brings Alexandre Laugier’s exceptional screenwriting to life—truly original, bloody, and terrifying, whereasDavid Aboucaya’s ‘Behind,’ is a spine-chilling paranormal reality show.”
“Mr Morgan” follows a group of delinquent youths who havedebts with a drug dealerand go to rob anoldman living in a mansion, but find they’ve messed with the wrong person.
“Behind” is about a team producing a reality show about paranormal forces that inadvertentlyawakenactualsupernatural forcesin the shooting location.
Indeprod’s producer Emmanuel Saezexplains that helmerDavid Aboucayawas inspired by U.S. reality shows aboutpsychological ghost hunters. “At one pointreality is going to overtakefiction.”
Saez, who is based near Marseille, is also president of theFrench associationof IndependentCinema (A.F.C.I)and founder of France’s SMR13 International Independent Film Festival.
“I think it was more the scripts and the idea that appealed to usfor these two projects, ratherthan makinggenrefilms,” said Saez.
“I am dedicated to producing and directing independent films and the SMR13 film festival has played a pivotal role in promoting independent cinema, with high profile guests such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sean Cunningham and John Carpenter. Many of the world’s leading filmmakers began their careers by makinglow-budget independent films.”
“I think what counts is the concept, the idea,as astarting point,” added Ox. “Whatis good in thecase ofgenre filmsis that spectators havecertain expectations which the director can explore, transforming what could be a cliché into somethingthat isinteresting. Young audiences in particular are attentive to genre cinema and are looking for alternatives tothe Marvel modelorblockbusters.”
Indeprod and Luckmatrix are also prepping Saez’supcomingactionthriller, White City, about a new municipal police force that attempts to quell inner city riots. Sean Cunningham, (“Friday the 13th”) is the script consultant. They plan to shoot in either Portugal or Turkey.
The producerssay that for the twin shoot in Portugal they plan toincorporatenew tech, post-production tools, AI, and reevaluatetheproductionsto create a sustainable and eco-friendlyshoot.Savings made possible by the twin shoot are expected to delivera boost of up to one-thirdperfilm, which will be further leveraged by the 30% cash rebate.
“The idea is to propose a way of producing that is completely different from the usual approach,” says Ox. “But in my opinion, given that it has become commonplace to produce high-quality TV series with elevated budgets it’s natural to bring this kind of productivity and creativity to feature film production.”
Indeprod, based in the South of France, has previously produced “Roads of Fear”(“Sans Peur”)andis currently co-producing period cop show drama series Décade with Tarantula in Belgium.
Luckymatrix, based in Lisbon, isrunby producer Phil Ox,who has previously worked for the BBC, Channel 4, Nickelodeon, and Canal+, and is currently producinga biopic feature film on maverick journalist Peter Millar,based on his best-seller “1989: The Berlin Wall, My Part in its Downfall,” andis workingwith Alphanso technology to buildindependentmusic and video streaming platforms.
