Filmmaker Ranjeet S. Marwa is officially set to move forward on The Chosen Ones, a sprawling new survival thriller set to shoot in the U.K. starting in the first week of October through November. With Covid-19 safety protocols in place, Marwa will be directing from his own script and producing for his Rocket Sky High Motion Pictures Ltd. banner alongside Djonny Chen of Silent D Films, and with Sunny Pang (Headshot, The Night Comes For Us) attached to star.
The project is one of several feature films that Marwa kept in the works since launching crowdfunding in January for action thriller, Blood Rush (which would have filmed this summer), prior to setting forth plans to direct again with Traced by this time in 2020 after pitching the two projects to this year virtual Cannes market. The pandemic, among other factors, has since affected progress on both Traced and Blood Rush, with the latter instead aiming for a Spring 2021 shoot.
In The Chosen Ones, Pang will play Hiro, a cold and calculating Yakuza hitman forced to compete for his life among other seedy criminals in a deadly game devised by a corporate cabal overseeing a nefarious population control scheme, while the rich place their bets. Marwa describes the film as a cross between The Belko Experiment, Battle Royale and Scott Wiper’s The Condemned.
Nick Khan, who most recently helped craft the action for Zara Phythian action thriller, Tribal: Get Out Alive from Evolutionary Films (also produced by Silent D), will play a role as well, in addition to ironing out the key fight action. Further casting announcements remain pending.
Pang’s other recent credits include James Lee’s Kill-Fist, Toggle streaming series The Driver, and Zahir Omar’s Fly By Night. Marwa’s latest independent documentary, Covid-19: The Impact On Asian Cinema, is currently available for free for a limited time on his YouTube channel.