EXCLUSIVE: Peter Facinelli, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Stephen Dorff, Neal McDonough and Nathaniel Arcand have boarded Marc Furmie’s sci-fi action thriller Viper, which is being sold in the Cannes market by Solone.
Furmie and Jason Mavraidis wrote the script when takes place post a nuclear holocaust. An elite team of soldiers are sent into a condemned zone to destroy a bio-weapons lab. Instead they discover that Indigenous locals have returned to re-claim their land and discovered a cure for radioactive fallout. The pic’s is billed as being a cross between such pics as Saving Private Ryan and dystopian sci-fi films
Children of Men and Stalker.
Twilight thespian Facinelli plays Cole Vinson, the haunted captain of a team of operators sent into radiation-plagued Sector 12 by government agent Hank Reynolds (Minority Report‘s McDonough), in order to subsidize healthcare for his dying daughter. Vinson is soon confronted by a betrayal within the ranks of his own team and is forced to face the consequences of his troubled past as a soldier. Match Point and Mission: Impossible III‘s Rhys Meyers plays Trey Johnson, Vinson’s trusted commander, who has his own personal reasons for returning to Sector 12. The team is lead through the toxic zone by Jim Brave Bear (Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s Arcand), an Indigenous soldier whose allegiances are uncertain.
Viper is being produced by Corey Large (Paradise City, One Ranger, Mob Land) via his 308
Ent banner alongside EPs Stephanie Rennie (Being Charlie, Where Are You) of Imoto Productions and Kirk Shaw (Battle In Seattle, Drive Hard, Personal Effects). They are joined by EPs Ram Getz (Mob Land, The Movers), Jayden Krieger, Greg Meyer (Cold Deck), Michael Mortensen (Mob Land), Jordan Wayne Nott (Cold Deck), Colin Watts (Hot Seat), Furmie and Mavraidis.
The movie was made with the cooperation of the Cowichan Nation in Vacouvder. The production cast several Indigenous Canadians and Cowichan locals alongside Arcand and Dion – both of whom hail from Plains Cree Nation roots and appeared in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Additional photography is currently underway in Los Angeles.
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“As a filmmaker, it was important for me to include, represent and celebrate the people of the Cowichan Nation on whose land we were given the privilege to shoot. Each department of the production consulted closely with Indigenous Elders and we were given the honor of portraying Cowichan culture. The entire crew was welcomed warmly and blessed by the community. This was hugely inspirational to me and allowed to tell a story that had as much authenticity and realism as it did science fiction.” Says Furmie.
South African-born-Australian-raised and LA-based director Furmie is a veteran of music videos, TV commercials and award-winning shorts whose first feature film, the sci-fi indie Terminus, was released by Vertical Entertainment in 2016. Furmie is also in production on The Weight of Darkness starring Angus Macfadyen, Doug Jones, Jaime King, Corbin Bernsen and Angus Benfield. Furmie is repped by Allard Cantor and Jarrod Murray at Epicenter LA.
308 Ent will soon release Cold Deck starring Dorff, Alec Baldwin, Clive Standen and Tom Welling. 308 is also in pre-production on Barry Levinson’s Assassination, starring Al Pacino and Shia LaBeouf.
Facinelli is represented by Paradigm Talent Agency and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman,
Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs and Fox. Arcand is represented by Darryl Mork Talent Management and RainWolf Management. Rhys Meyers is represented by Artist International Group and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein. McDonough is repped by WME and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher. Dorff is repped by Atlas Artists and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox.
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