Canadian filmmaker Seth A Smith has proven before that you can do quite a lot with a few resources and a great idea. His 2017 indie sci-fi film The Crescent impressed audiences on the fstival circuit and its subsequent rollout.
Our own Kurt Halfyard caught the film at TIFF and reported back to us, rather eloquently...
The Crescent is remarkable realization of an ambitious story on a tiny budget by way of copious amounts of intelligence and talent. I admire its chutzpah, particularly when it tiptoes so quietly.The craft here, put to effective use, creates a kind of a fugue state in the audience, punctuated with moments teasing out the horror. This is a chiller, not a thriller, that traffics in goosebumps and held breath over rote jump scare shenanigans.
So we will count on Kurt to help raise our excitement level for Smith's new film, Tin Can, as it begins production over on the east coast. This is especially considering he has now added the tag 'bio' to his 'sci-fi' repotoire.
Add to that genre stalwart Michael Ironside is in the cast and Smith consulted with Brandon Cronenberg, Son of Cronenberg, a member of a family who knows a thing or two about that 'bio' tag.
The full press release follows.
Production on TIN CAN, a new bio-sci-fi feature from the creators of The Crescent and Lowlife, begins in Halifax, Nova Scotia today.Starring Anna Hopkins (Bad Blood, The Expanse), Simon Mutabazi (Sex & Violence, Black Cop), and Michael Ironside (Scanners, The Machinist, Total Recall), the boundary-pushing film follows the thawing out of Dr. Offret Greyl, a parasitologist who wakes up in a locked cryopreservation chamber after being abducted and frozen.TIN CAN is the third feature for the CUT/OFF/TAIL team of director/writer Seth A Smith, writer Darcy Spidle, and producer Nancy Urich. The company’s 2018 psychedelic horror The Crescent premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and later took home top awards at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival for score, screenwriting, and performance. Among other accolades, The Crescent was listed among the Globe and Mail's top ten Canadian films of last year.For this new feature, the CUT/OFF/TAIL trio is joined by executive producer Rob Cotterill (The Lighthouse, Hobo with a Shotgun) and character designer Mike Jensen of best-selling video game Destiny. Director/writer Brandon Cronenberg (Antiviral, Possessor) consulted on the film’s script.TIN CAN is set to arrive on screens in 2020.