EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a fun one. Nicolas Cage is set to play one of the last known survivors of a nuclear apocalypse who must do battle with a horde of vicious cannibals in new action-thriller Parish.
Concourse Media is launching world pre-sales on the project ahead of the TIFF market.
Set 30 years after a nuclear apocalypse, Parish stars Oscar winner and action vet Cage as “a hardened survivor who has managed to stay alive with his highly trained attack dogs by following one unbreakable rule: never let anyone through the gate. That rule has kept him alive for three decades. But when a desperate woman carrying an infant appears outside his sanctuary, Parish is forced to choose between compassion and survival. His decision exposes the refuge he has spent years building and puts him in the crosshairs of a vicious band of cannibals closing in from the wasteland. With his highly equipped compound under siege and his past finally catching up with him, Parish is forced into a brutal fight to protect everything he has left.”
The project heralds from writer-director Adam Sigal, writer-director of Simon Pegg comedy-thriller Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose and producer on 2024 sci-fi Slingshot with Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne. Filming is being lined up for October in Minnesota.
Joel Shapiro of MagiCity Studios (Gunner, Killerman) is producing along with Steven Tyler Sahlein (The Devil’s Advocate). Matthew Shreder’s Concourse Media will executive-produce and finance alongside its sister company Archetype Media Finance.
Big-budget veteran DoP David Tattersall, known for Star Wars: Episodes I, II & III, The Green Mile, Tomb Raider and Cage starrers Con Air and Next, will serve as cinematographer.
“There’s a scale and pedigree to Parish that immediately separates it from the pack, with all the ingredients of a real theatrical event,” said Matthew Shreder, CEO of Concourse Media. “Nic Cage is an incredible and fearless actor, with an extraordinary group of filmmakers around him who are all setting out to make a sophisticated survival thriller that’s a cinematic event built for a global audience.”
Producer Joel Shapiro added: “Adam has created a world that is savage, cinematic and incredibly visceral, but what drew us to Parish was the humanity underneath it. Nick Cage brings an unpredictability and emotional intensity that makes him perfect for this character. And to be building this world alongside artists like David Tattersall is incredibly exciting. We’re approaching this as a big-screen experience from the ground up.”
Cage is repped by Stride Management, WME, and GGSSC.
