Parkour Superstar Sébastien Foucan To Give Chase In U.K. Action Thriller, BHARAL
I had been hearing through the grapevine in the past few months that actor and freerunning extraordinare Sébastien Foucan was being primed for a return to the big screen in some capacity. As it turns out this week with events at Cannes in full force, the facts are now finally starting to emerge thus confirming the fact with news on the new film, Bharal.
The film hails from the newly-established UK production banner BB88 with Foucan making his stellar foray into a lead role after rasing the benchmark of cinematic parkour with performances in Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale (2006) and Scott Mann’s The Tournament (2009). Foucan will star opposite Kelsey Grammer (Transformers: Age Of Extinction) in the story of an African refugee looking for his missing sister who garners media when uncovers an underground sex trafficking ring, making him a target London’s criminal underbelly along with the immigrant community that has taken him in.
The Antwerp Dolls helmer Jake L. Reid reunites with Foucan upon directing as well as producing via Liberal Region Productions banner with BB88 and Compos Mentis also producing. Filming is expected to begin early next year.
The news on Bharal just adds to the current slate of titles on hand for BB88 while at Cannes, making clear its ambitious m.o. for the profusion of cinema for U.K., China and international markets. Goldfinch Entertainment founder and MD Kirsty Bell and actor-producer Craig Conway founded the company, the latter who is also readying his own directorial debut with the new thriller, Kruger.
via Screendaily:
“We are very excited to announce our full slate here at Cannes,” Bell and Conway said in a joint statement. “It has taken a lot of hard work to pull together what we think is a diverse and ambitious set of projects that all have strong international and commercial appeal.
“As a new independent production company, we have been very careful, and very lucky, to choose production partners with strong track records in creating projects on this scale.
“Conversely we are just as excited to bring new filmmakers in to our productions, in keeping with the BB88 company ethos of finding and nurturing talent.
“We are eager to begin production on what will be an extremely busy 12 months, but as always we will have an eye out for new and exciting stories that fit in to our slate and the BB88 ethos.”
Others on BB88’s include – and are not limited to – revenge thriller, Vigilante with Mann producing alongside production outlet Another Bad Headache, Michael Elkin’s Break starring Bernard Hill and snooker player Jimmy White.