Production has begun in New Zealand on Welcome to the Thrill, an extreme sports action adventure movie starring Olympic freestyle skier Jossi Wells.
In the film, Wells takes up the challenge of new extreme sports in which he has no experience at all.
The film examines why adrenaline junkies do what they do.
It is laced with philosophical reflections ranging from Mark Twain to the athletes themselves.
Directed by Toa Fraser(The Dead Lands, Giselle), Welcome to the Thrill brings Fraser’s cinematic sensibility and narrative construction to the world of extreme sports.
It is the latest film from producer Matthew Metcalfe’s General Film Corporation and is his fifth collaboration with Toa Fraser (6 Days, The Dead Lands, Giselle, Dean Spanley).
Filming will take place in New Zealand, USA, France and Hawaii.
New Zealand distribution is by Rialto Distribution.
Fraser and Metcalfe are currently in post-production on action thriller 6 Days, the NZ/UK co-production starring Jamie Bell, Mark Strong and Abbie Cornish which recounts the story of the 1980 siege of the Iranian Embassy in London.
Freestyle skier Josiah “Jossi” Wells, from Wanaka, New Zealand, won a bronze medal at the Winter X Games XVI and represented New Zealand at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
General Film Corporation (GFC) is an Auckland-based production company responsible for 12 feature films and 10 tele-features, including The Dead Lands as well as Dean Spanley, Giselle and Beyond The Edge.
GFC currently has three feature films in production including Toa Fraser’s 6 Days and Roger Donaldson’s Mclaren and two in post-production.