A media release from the producers
Revolution Pictures and The Acme Film Company are pleased to announce the Australian and international premieres of the Australian sci-fi/comedy THE 25th REICH.
PiFan – the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Buchon, South Korea – today announced its 2012 programme, with THE 25th REICH selected for its main World Fantastic Cinema programme, in what will be its international premiere (July 19-29). The film will have its world premiere just two weeks earlier at Perth’s Revelation International Film Festival, on Friday July 6th.
Three years in the making, this innovative indie feature is a unique WW2 sci-fi adventure with its tongue firmly in cheek, featuring more than 400 high-end visual effects and a huge original orchestral score – just two elements unheard of in low budget features. Shot in and around Victoria’s Grampian Ranges, and post-produced in 6 cities around the world (St Johns, Melbourne, Adelaide, Los Angeles, Sydney & Bristol), THE 25th REICH is a rare Aussie excursion into retro science-fiction, complete with a time machine, flying saucers and futuristic Nazi-robot-spiders.
THE 25th REICH was first screened to international buyers at the recent Berlin and Cannes Film Festival markets. Within days of the details leaking online, the blogosphere was buzzing: “Nazis. In the Future. Did you hear what I said??? Rejoice!“ said the overexcited US cult-movie site FanGirlTastic.com – and the online following has continued to flourish in the subsequent months.
In THE 25th REICH, five American GI's stationed in Australia in 1943 are in search of the company’s missing mascot – a puma (true story) – and find themselves embroiled in a secret OSS time-travel mission that goes horribly wrong. The hapless soldiers are catapulted 50,000 years back in time, to retrieve an alien spaceship that might help the Allies win the war against Hitler (not quite a true story). Time travel, alien burial grounds, bloodthirsty mega-fauna may or may not be involved.
The producers signed World Sales rights late last year with LA-based Lightning Entertainment, who have already sold the film into more than ten territories including Japan, Germany, Thailand, Middle East, Greece, China and the UK – where it’s being released by leading distributor Revolver.
Melbourne-based director and co-writer Stephen Amis comments: “The 25th Reich is a pure B-Movie replica – a tongue in cheek homage to the sci-fi, Saturday afternoon serials and WW2 movies of the 1940s & 50s. We’ve been aiming for an international launch at one of the major cult/fantasy film festivals and Puchon is the first of the season and one of the best. Meanwhile we’re delighted to have the world premiere on Australian soil, at Australia’s premier cult film festival, Revelation.”
THE 25th REICH is produced by Lynne Wilson, Stephen Amis and Tait Brady; and written by Amis, Serge Denardo and David Richardson – based on the novella by legendary pulp-novelist J.J. Solomon; with an original score by composer Ricky Edwards. The film has been entirely independently produced and financed.
An Australian theatrical release is planned for October 2012.
Information links:
THE 25TH REICH website : http://www.the25threich.com
PiFAN website : http://www.pifan.com/eng/pifan/pifan01.asp
REVELATION website : http://www.revelationfilmfest.org