In a neon-noir world, crippled cult musician Ike and his son Leon reunite to make a comeback. Will Leon save his father, or succumb to the delusion of fame?
The film’s unique visual approach will be a combination of a live action base, an animated background layer, and a frame-by-frame animated FX layer.
King Wray is currently being shot at real locations, intervening with production design and set extension in postproduction, with a final animated look over the top to create the neon-noir world.
“The exploration of new forms of visual language and experimentation have always been the heart of our creative approach. Like with our previous short film Opinci, we are aiming for a hybrid style that marries the human relatability that live action can offer, with animation, a window into our character’s soul and emotions,” Anton and Damian Groves said in a statement.
The main cast of this English spoken film is British and Swiss: Felix Edwards as Leon, Reid Anderson as Ike (aka KingWray), joined by Natalie Roles, Isata Kamara, Guy Combes and Jud Charlton.
“We started working on King Wray in 2020. It was, and still is, a journey with many challenges: a debut film, which visually involves a technique at the intersection of live action, special effects, traditional animation, and 3D – a colourful Sin City, as we call it. We received a very small amount of support from the Romanian Film Centre (CNC), but it allowed us to attract other financing. Emmanuel Quillet and Martine Vidalenc of Midralgar were the first ones to believe in this project, joining us in 2022. Together with a number of companies from Romania, with the support of Studioset and of Ivana Marinic of Marinis Media, we have now reached the filming stage”, producer Ana Maria Pîrvan told FNE.
Ana Maria Pîrvan and Dan Mateescu are producing through Romania’s Studioset Production in coproduction with Emmanuel Quiller through France’s Midralgar and Ivana Marinić Kragić through Croatia’s Marinis Media.
The project is supported by the Romanian Film Centre, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Région Sud Provence, Région Grand-Est, and Le Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée.
The list of financiers includes Cinema City, McCann Erikson, Lidl, MMS Communication, Avanpost Media (avanpost.eu), FRAME Studios, Aqua Carpatica, Initiative Media, Media Investment, Groupama, Cutare Film, Dabijan Studio, Om Studio, and Hubcare..
The budget is 1.8 m EUR, Ana Maria Pîrvan also said.
The shooting takes place in Bucharest over 23 days, with Radu Voinea as cinematographer.
The postproduction will be made in France, Croatia and Romania.
Paul Dussaux and Martin Bejuy from the French band, Psychotic Monks, are attached to the project, and have agreed to license music from the band, to create the King Wray sound.
The film will be released in 2026. No sales agent is attached yet.
Anton and Damian Groves’s short animated film Opinci won the Canal+ Best Youth Film at the Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival in 2020.
Production Information:
Producer:
Studioset Production (Romania)
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Coproducers:
Midralgar (France)
Marinis Media (Croatia)
Credits:
Directors: Anton Groves, Damian Groves
Scriptwriters: Anton Groves, Damian Groves
DoP: Radu Voinea
Editor: Bogdan Orcula
Production designer: Lulu Petrescu
Costume designer: Ina Isbașescu
Composers: Paul Dussaux, Martin Bejuy
Cast:Felix Edwards, Reid Anderson, Natalie Roles, Isata Kamara, Guy Combes, Jud Charlton
