Crowdfund This! Fantasy Short THE FAUN OF HEALWOOD Promises Monsters From A Female Perspective

After his sci-fi short Exsequi V - which was selected for numerous festivals - French director Stéphane Artus is now working on The Faun Of Healwood, an ambitious fantasy project in which a bride takes on a creature to save her beloved. The story is set between the two World Wars and will take place in two distinct universes: that of the human world, and that of Healwood, the eponymous Faun's magical world.

As Artus explains below, the genesis of The Faun of Healwood lies in his love for creatures but mostly in his will to tackle the characters usually depicted in fairy tales:

I am a great monster lover, so I have always wanted to create a film which would include a creature that fascinates me: a faun.

But above all, my wish was to tell the story of a heroine. Unlike the more classical pattern, this story takes on the feminine point of view.

The traditional fairy tales are almost always about a man, often a Prince, saving his lady love. With the screenwriter Denys Corel, we decided to reverse the roles. It is the woman who come to the rescue of her beloved.

Lucile Jaillant (L'Étrange, French TV show Bref) and former Mad Movies film critic David Doukhan (Le Réserviste, Innocence) will star in the short, which Artus is hoping to shoot in 2015. Judging from the stills posted on their Indiegogo page they've just launched, the concept art looks gorgeous and the visual team seems to have developed quite a fascinating universe.

You can check out the presentation video below as well as their website to learn more about this promising project, and help them if you'd like to see the final result!