SHINY NEW WORLD: Jan van Gorkum Shooting Horror Short This November
Back in 2017 one of the pitches from the Frontières Co-Production Market that tickled my fancy was for a Dutch horror flick called The Cleaner. It was at the scripting stage at that point but the story about a construction worker who joins a company that cleans up after events with monsters. The promise of in camera practical effects was music to our ears.
As the project progresses van Gorkum is preparing to shoot a short film version called Shiny New World. The short film introduces us to the feature film's central character Barry and will also serve as a proof of concept that production partners can look at.
van Gorkum has enlisted the help of Dutch special effects team the Mad Scientists Movement, led by Richard Raaphorst (Worst Case Scenario, Frankenstein’s Army) and Stephan Vos. The image seen here is a piece of conceptual art created by Raaphorst, of another character called the Blood Banker. Yes. That's a vacuum connected to their belly. More on them in the press release below.
A crowd-funding campaign has been launched to help raise funds for the smaller project and van Gorkum has passed along a short teaser as well. Succinct and bloody, it gets the point across.
Pre-production is currently on its way for the short genrefilm Shiny New World; a horror-comedy directed by Dutch filmmaker Jan van Gorkum. A film that serves as a proof of concept for the feature film The Cleaner. Rotterdam-based production company Make Way Film led by producer Monique van Kessel produces the film, with support of associate producer Jan Doense.Back in 2017, Van Gorkum presented his plans for The Cleaner at the Frontières Co-Production Market in Canada. His pitch generated a lot of positive buzz and since then the film has been in active development. The Cleaner introduces a world in which demons exist and where there’s a cleaning company which cleans up the mess they make. Like the feature itself, Shiny New World is going to be a throwback to horror-comedies from the 80's and 90's, with lots of old school practical effects.In the form of a short corporate film, the audience is introduced to the main character, a middle-aged cleaner named Barry. What begins as a normal day at work for Barry, quickly spins out of control.A disturbing and unique creature will also be present in the short, the Blood Banker. The creature will be brought to life by Dutch special effects team the Mad Scientists Movement, led by Richard Raaphorst (director of Frankenstein’s Army) and Stephan Vos. “Blood Bankers are basically living and breathing vacuum cleaners,” director Jan van Gorkum explains. “They drive around on a mobility scooter at demonic crime scenes, sucking up the mess. They can attach a hose to a strange mouth on their stomach, allowing them to suck up blood and small organic waste. The substance is filtered inside their body and transformed into a drinkable juice for other demons. The resulting product is transported to special blood banks for demons, hence the name. They take being sustainable to a whole new level.”The filmmakers hope to raise a part of the film’s budget on Dutch crowdfunding-website CineCrowd. Filming is expected to start around the beginning of November. Apart from an international festival run, the ultimate goal of Shiny New World is to attract investors for the feature.
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