Sales at Cannes last month saw the launch of writer and director Hicham Hajji’s geopolitical action thriller, Redemption Day, from Voltage Pictures and starring Gary Dourdan (CSI), Serinda Swan (Marvel’s Inhumans) and Samy Naceri (Taxi franchise). Production reportedly wrapped its shoot in Morocco with a script reportedly inspired by a true story about a photographer friend killed by a terrorist group during an NGO in Africa. The footage in the player above hails from the first week of principal photography earlier on.
After the discovery in Morocco of the oldest human bones dating back 315,000 years – a discovery that will turn what we think we know about human evolution upside down – a famous archeologist Kate Paxton goes on site and is suddenly kidnapped by a terrorist group and held for a ransom. Her husband a US Marines will do everything in his power to save her.
Who was really behind the kidnapping, and why was the big oil companies so interested in the way it played out? It might just take the forged-under-fire bonds of a Marine Corps captain and a Moroccan intelligence official to connect the dots.
Joining in are actors Andy Garcia who plays the U.S. Ambassador in Morocco, Brice Bexter El Glaoui as the Moroccan intel official Paxton enlists, and Robert Knepper as the seedy figure behind the curtains known only as Mr. K. Among those rounding out the cast are Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Martin Donovan (Ant Man), Moroccan rapper Taoufik Hazeb (Don Bigg), Soumaya Akaaboune and Mehdi Ouazzani.
Redemption Day is described by Voltage as a fully financed domestic production, touting the country’s cinematic locals typically seen in popular large scale productions like Game Of Thrones, Gladiator and Inception.
“Redemption Day will pave the way for Moroccan talents and producers to trust their own skills and create a viable ecosystem to reach the international circuit.”