EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Windon, the Aussie-born cinematographer behind Universal Pictures’ mega-franchise films Furious 7 and Fast and Furious 6, will be making his directorial debut with DragonSlate Media’s action thriller Full Throttle. The feature, written by Todd Slawsby, is set for production in the first quarter of next year.
Full Throttle is about a motorcylce racer who works as a courier in Kuala Lumpur after suffering a career-ending crash during a race in Singapore.(Incidentally, that is where DragonSlate is based. After the courier’s girlfriend is abducted, he must crisscross the city, avoiding capture by relentless authorities while being blackmailed to perform escalating acts of crime by a criminal mastermind — all against the clock.
Andrew Mason, executive producer on both The Matrix trilogy and last year’s Oscar-nominated Saving Mr. Banks as well as one of the producers on Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner, is leading the production team. Full Throttle will bring together production teams from Hollywood, Malaysia and Singapore. It will shoot throughout Malaysia, with additional photography in Singapore.
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“The timing for my transition into the directing seat has been made possible with the confluence of the right material and a great producing team,” said Windon in a statement. “The strong character-driven story loaded with adrenaline fueled action is a perfect project for me to helm.”
Windon is an Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose has worked for 35 years behind the camera. He is currently pre-production on Star Trek 3 for Paramount where he worked in the past on G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation.
DragonSlate’s Leon Tan will serve as producer, while Sukee Chew, Andrew Ooi, Harriet Spalding and Robert Lundberg will executive produce. Tan was responsible for producing Malaysia’s first 3D stereoscopic animated feature War of the Worlds: Goliath, under his Tripod Entertainment banner. The film won Best Animated Feature award at the Los Angeles 3D Film Festival and is currently being sold worldwide.
Writer Slawsby’s multiple award-winning 2014 short film, The Heebie-Jeebies, is currently being developed as a feature. Spalding has worked in international film development and production for over 25 years, having worked closely with Samuel and Victor Hadida as well as Gary Lucchesi. Ooi heads 852 Films, management firm Echelon Talent, and executive produced Sharlto Copley-starrer Open Grave, Ho-Cheung Pang’s Dream Home and Jeffrey Dean Morgan-starrer The Courier.
Chew produced Toni Collette/Michael Sheen-starrer Jesus Henry Christ, Dark Tide which features Halle Berry, and the upcoming Barely Lethal starring Hailee Steinfeld, Samuel L. Jackson and Jessica Alba. That will be released this summer from A24 (distributors of Ex Machina) on May 29th.
Lastly, Lundberg was a development executive at Dune Entertainment, during which time the company co-financed Avatar and Black Swan, among many others. He executive produced the first Lionsgate/Pantelion feature Girl In Progress, starring Eva Mendes, and the Anchor Bay thriller The Reckoning, directed by John V. Soto.
Craig Emanuel from Loeb & Loeb is brokering deals on behalf of Windon; Richard Caleel represents Windon at Worldwide Production Agency (WPA).
Eric Feig brokered deals on behalf of Todd Slawsby, Sukee Chew and Andrew Ooi.
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