Writer-director Aaron Wilson’s debut feature Canopy, a thriller set during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in WWII, has been sold to the US.
Monterey Media will release the film in US cinemas in the second quarter of 2014, folllowed by VOD and DVD.
The plot follows an Australian fighter pilot (Khan Chittenden) who is shot down in combat and is forced to navigate through enemy territory in search of sanctuary. Taiwanese actor Mo Tzu-Yi plays a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter who joins him in the struggle to survive.
Virtually dialogue-free, the film produced by Finer Films’ Katrina Fleming got mostly rave reviews after its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Fleming tells IF, "We chose Monterey because they have an impeccable reputation for managing art house films and working with filmmakers."
"In this time of turmoil in the world it is imperative that people can glimpse the compassionate side of human nature and dignity especially in a beautifully cinematic film such as this," said Monterey’s Scott Mansfield. Odin’s Eye Entertainment's Michael Favelle represents the film internationally.
Monterey’s recent acquisitions include Larry Brand’s The Girl on the Train, a thriller about a documentary filmmaker who has a chance encounter with a mysterious young woman; and Gary Lundgren’s Redwood Highway, which stars Shirley Knight as a retiree who sets out to walk 120 km to the coast of Oregon for her granddaughter’s wedding.
Wilson has already shoot footage for a companion film, which follows the fighter pilot in the 1970s and in the present day. Robert Menzies plays the character in the 70s; the director is yet to cast an actor to play him as an 85-year-old.
Wilson has just returned from the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where Canopy had sold-out sessions.