Investment from Russia has been secured that will finalize the funding required to see Oscar-winning Star Wars art director, Roger Christian, release a full feature based on his 1980’s short Black Angel – which was attached to The Empire Strike Back.
Russian investment is set to be tapped for Roger Christian’s feature version of his 1980 cult short Black Angel.
Speaking during the first edition of the KinoPoisk Film Market (KFM) in Moscow, the film’s producer Harald Reichebner said that 70% of the budget is in place as a co-production between the UK, Belgium and Hungary, with the final 30% now to come from an undisclosed private Russian investor.
The $9.7m production features an international cast including Dougray Scott, John Rhys-Davies, Rutger Hauer (who starred as The Mystic Monk in Christian’s 1994 biopic Nostradamus), Turkish-German actress-model Meryem Uzerli, star of the Turkish TV series Muhtesem Yüzyil, and Russian actor Vladimir Mashkov, known to international audiences from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocoland Behind Enemy Lines.
Berlin-based, Austrian-born Reichebner – who had previously worked with Christian as the producer on Nostradamus – told Screen in Moscow that the shooting of battle scenes for Black Angel will begin at the Korda Film Studios in Hungary from this December.
The production will then move to Belgium in early 2017 for outside locations before returning to Hungary where Korda’s sets from Game of Thrones will be used to recreate the film’s mythological setting.
The original Black Angel short was the directorial debut of Christian, who had previously served as the Oscar-winning art director on Star Wars in 1977. The short was shown theatrically as a supporting programme to The Empire Strikes Back in the UK, Australia and Scandinavia in 1980.
