Director Sophia Banks has lined up her second feature off the back of action-thriller Black Site, with the announcement today she will helm Cosmos Pictures’ Street Rat Allie.
The first in what is expected to be a trilogy of films, the story follows Allie, who is presented with a ticket to escape a post-apocalyptic city sealed off by a dome. She and her ‘Street Rats’, a pack of Dickensian girls who depend on each other for survival, become the targets of every criminal – human or otherwise. Armed with only her wits and a skateboard, Allie faces incredible dangers and perhaps the biggest battle of all, fighting her own conscience in leaving the Street Rats behind.
Production will commence in Australia next year, with Hacksaw Ridge trio Bill Mechanic, Paul Currie, and Rick Nicita to produce for Cosmos Pictures.
Street Rat Allie is the debut film project for writer Walker McKnight, who was awarded an Academy Nicholl Fellowship in 2019.
It marks another step forward for Banks, who spent the first part of this year directing Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, and Michelle Monaghan, Uli Latukefu, Pallavi Sharda, Phoenix Raei and Fayssal Bazzi in Black Site, which was filmed on the Gold Coast.
Last month, Anonymous Pictures announced it was developing a new sci-fi series based on her short film Proxy, starring Emma Booth.
Mechanic said he “couldn’t be more excited” to join forces with the director.
“Sophia has already proven herself as an Award-winning commercials and shorts director and is about to break in the feature world in a big way,” he said.
“She is one of the most exciting talents I’ve had the fortune to work with, and I expect her to turn Street Rat Allie into a major franchise. “