John Balazs has begun production on a new thriller in Melbourne, featuring Nicole Pastor in her first leading role.
Freelance follows Katie, a down-on-her-luck video editor who takes on a mysterious well-paying job cutting snuff films, only to be haunted by visions of the people in her videos.
The cast also includes Jordan Fraser-Trumble, who appeared alongside Pastor in The Cost, as well as Stephen Degenaro, Jasper Bagg, and Hannah Brooke.
Penned by New York-based writer Mike Gerbino, Freelance is being produced by Balazs alongside Vikki Blinks and Marlane Ghmed for Prima Lux Films, while Adam La Rosa is executive producing for La Rosa Productions.
The creative team also includes cinematographer David Chan and composer Kai Chen Lim, with whom Balazs collaborated on his debut feature Rage.
Shooting began last week on privately-funded project and will continue through until May 22, incorporating 30 locations around the city.
Balazs, who also serves as editor, said he came across Gerbino’s script online last year after feeling a hunger to tell a smaller, more contained story in the wake of Rage.
“One of the biggest mistakes that I made with Rage was that I made it a 2.5-hour film, which I learnt that the audience doesn’t really care for,” he said.
“So I was after a script that was a tight 90 minutes but that had a meaty story behind it with good characters.
“I trolled through scripts online and came across Freelance and I fell in love with it straight away.”
So began preparations for an “ambitious” sub-$200k shoot that also included filming the snuff films Katie would become involved in.
“It’s always fun to tell an actor, ‘Hey, we’re going to put you in a vacuum bag, or we’re going to hang you from a rope’,” Balazs said.
“The script does take things to an extreme but I’m actually really looking forward to allowing an audience to see it for themselves.
“A lot of the times, we’re not going to be showing too much of the action on screen but we’re going to be hearing it.
“The story lends itself to that creativity because she’s editing it and I think her reaction will sell the terror and fear more than actually seeing it.”
Prima Lux Films and La Rosa Productions are in talks with US distributors, including Gravitas Ventures, who distributed Rage in North America, in regards to Freelance, with the director eyeing a Halloween 2023 release.