EXCLUSIVE: Ryuhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train) is set to direct roller coaster thriller Thrill Ride, which Film Bridge International is launching for sales ahead of next month’s Cannes market.
Production is being lined up for the fourth quarter of this year with filming due to take place in Bulgaria at Pro Cinema Studios.
Penned by Chad Law and Christopher Jolley, the English-language film will tell the story of a group of people, including two young women, who are trapped upside down on a roller coaster taken over by a mysterious saboteur threatening to drop them all one-by-one to their deaths.
Producing will be United Film’s Gabriel Georgiev, Ellen Wander and Jordan Dykstra. Casting is in process.
Japanese filmmaker Kitamura is known for Japanese and English-language movies including Godzilla: Final Wars, Bradley Cooper thriller The Midnight Meat Train, No One Lives with Luke Evans, Japanese action pic Lupin III, and Ruby Rose action movie Doorman.
“Thrill Ride is exactly the type of high-concept based thriller that our customers are looking for in the marketplace,” said Film Bridge’s Wander and Dykstra in a joint statement. “With Ryuhei at the helm, we know his vision and execution will deliver thrills of the highest quality.”
“As a hardcore rollercoaster fan since I was young, I immediately fell in love with this script filled with suspense, action, crazy ups and downs, turns, loops, and corkscrews at maximum speed,” added Kitamura. “I can’t wait to get on a ride and bring life to the wildest rollercoaster imaginable.”
The company’s sales slate includes Classified starring Aaron Eckhart and Tim Roth, and the upcoming Killing Faith starring Guy Pearce and DeWanda Wise and The Dreadful starring Kit Harington and Sophie Turner.
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