Renny Harlin Shoots ‘The Strangers’ Remake Trilogy for Lionsgate in Slovakia — Central and East European News

Zuzana Točíková Vojteková
·3 min read
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The first part of “The Strangers,” a trilogy directed by Renny Harlin and produced by Lionsgate, has started production in Slovakia. Rastislav Kuril’s Frame Film is servicing the production in the country. The producers registered for the 33% cash rebate at the Slovak Audiovisual Fund in June, Film New Europe reports.

Filming on the first part of the trilogy started in August on locations in and around Bratislava.

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The trilogy is a remake of the 2008 film “The Strangers,” which was written and directed by Bryan Bertino, with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman starring. Together with its 2018 sequel “The Strangers: Prey at Night,” it became a cult horror classic.

Starring Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez and Gabriel Basso, the film will follow Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded property, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.

‘A Cross in the Desert’ Tops Serbian Charts
Hadži-Aleksandar Đurović’s sophomore feature “A Cross in the Desert,” which was released by Art Vista on 62 prints on Sept. 8, scored 10,812 admissions on its opening weekend. The first coproduction between Serbia and Jordan surpassed “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “DC League of Superpets,” “Bullet Train” and “After Ever Happy.”

“A Cross in the Desert” cashed in 42,228 Euros ($42,038), which is a good result for cinema distribution in early September.

The script of “A Cross in the Desert,” penned by Ljiljana Habjanović Đurović and Hadži-Aleksandar Đurović, follows the journey of the pious young Paraskeva from an ordinary girl to the most beloved and respected saint in the Orthodox Christian religion. The director guides us through 40 years of trials, deep internal struggles, but omnipresent faith as well.

The main cast includes Milena Predić, Milica Stefanović, Filip Hajduković, Jadranka Selec, Branislav Tomašević, Danijel Sič, Andrej Šepetkovski and Mladen Sovilj.

“A Cross in the Desert” was produced by Hadži-Aleksandar Đurović and Ljiljana Habjanović Đurović through Belgrade’s Aleksandrija Film, and coproduced by Khaled Haddad through Jordan’s Jordan Pioneers. The project was supported by Serbia’s Ministry of Culture and Information, Film Center Serbia, the Secretariat for Culture of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and by the Royal Film Center of Jordan.

The film was mainly shot in Jordan, but also in Serbia and Romania.

Most Expensive Film in Czech History Scores First Spot in Local Cinemas
The English-language historical drama “Medieval” from scriptwriter, director and producer Petr Jákl is currently the most attended film in Czech cinemas. The film, which was released by Bioscop in 244 cinemas on Sept. 8, has become the fourth biggest premiere in the Czech Republic in 2022 with 104,916 admissions and 716,474 Euros ($713,221) gross during the first weekend.

It took 11 years from the first draft of the script to make the film produced by Cassian Elwes with J.B.J. Film and Double Tree Entertainment, with an overall budget of around 20.4 million Euros ($20.3 million). The project about the Bohemian military commander Jan Žižka was conceived as both a local and an international film, casting well-known foreign actors such as Michael Caine, Ben Frost, Til Schweiger, Sophie Lowe and Matthew Goode.

The theatrical release of “Medieval” in 1,311 U.S. cinemas didn’t go as expected, with only 807,761 Euros ($804,094) gross. The film became one of the biggest box office flops in U.S. history, scoring the 28th-lowest opening weekend ever.

This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.

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