LOCARNO, Switzerland — Making good on buzz among buyers at Locarno, the Steven Kostanski-directed and Raven Banner-sold “Deathstalker” has scored major territory pre-sales with Japan and Germany before the sword and sorcery actioned world premieres at Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival.
These sales add to a preemptive deal with Shout! Studios for English-language territories, announced by Variety just before the Locarno festival.
Since then Raven Banner has closed Japan with Klockworx and Germany with Lighthouse, both deals struck at Locarno, the genre sales outfit announced Tuesday. It is also in discussions with other distributors, it added.
Tokyo-based, Klockworx has a strong line in Asian and international actioners, complemented by upscale fare such as Walter Salles’ Academy Award winner “I’m Still Here.”
Raven Banner will release “Deathstalker” in Canada day-and-date to the U.S., whose theatrical release has been announced as Oct. 10.
The action-packed fantasy adventure film is produced by Pasha Patriki of Hangar 18 Media and Raven Banner’s Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt and James Fler. Guns N’ Roses’ Slash and Rodrigo Gudino serve as executive producers under the BerserkerGang label.
Also written by Kostanski, the new “Deathstalker” stars Daniel Bernhardt (“John Wick,” “The Matrix Reloaded”) as the titular hero, playing him more as a grizzled war veteran, as he has commented, than the buff young heroes of the originals. Patton Oswalt (“Young Adult,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”) provides the voice of Doodad, a benevolent wizened wizard.
The new “Deathstalker,” due to world premiere at Locarno on Aug. 15, screening out of competition, kicks in with new elements. The Kingdom of Abraxeon is now under siege from the Dreadites, a mysterious army of blood-red, spiky fleshed warriors with skeletal heads, who are looking to resucitate the long-dead sorcerer Nekromemnon, which would spell Abraxeon’s annihilation.
Deathstalker, here a rogue warrior living off the spoils recovered in the wake of Dreadite attacks, takes a cursed amulet from a dead Prince on a battlefield. He teams with Doodad to rid himself of the medallion as he’s marked by dark magick and hunted by monstrous assassins.
Action scenes are far more credible with Bernhardt’s body count of Dreadites heading to double digits in the first five minutes of the movie. Kostanski has a field day with practical effects, ranging, just in its early stretches, from a fanged harpy faced drone to a two-headed troll, a stone robot, man-eating snakes and a PigMan sourced from the original, the creature suits, prosthetic FX make-up and stop-motion animation coming courtesy of Kostanski’s Action Pants FX shop.
