What’s poppin’ post holiday folks?
I’ll tell ya!
Chilewood.
Chilewood is this effort by Eli Roth and Chilean director Nicolas Lopez to create films from Chile for mainstream U.S. audiences and the world at large. Chilewood is a concept — an “alternative filmmaking model,” as Lopez puts it, which prioritizes far lower-budget productions, but still delivers audiences polished storytelling and production values.
Lopez is picking up his Canon 7D, making micro budget genre films in his homeland, giving it a polished look, and pretty much killing the game right now. He has got the right sensibility. Make dope genre films instead of those bullshit high brow arthouse movies with Gael Garcia Bernal that NOBODY stateside watches.
Over the holiday, I saw Lopez’s Que Pena Tu Vida on HBO GO, then the hilarious sequel Que Pena Tu Boda on Netflix. The third movie Que Pena Tu Familia drops in Chile next week. I’ll see that one when it reaches stateside.
In short, Nicolas Lopez is dope. Consider me a fan.
He is so dope, that he got Eli Roth to co-write and star in an Earthquake thriller called Aftershock. In the movie, Roth plays an American tourist visiting his pals in Chile and looking to hook up with the local hotties. When a massive earthquake strikes the nightclub they’re in & the local prison’s inmates are set loose, the night of fun turns into one of terror.
The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival back in September and Harvey Weinstein paid bookoo dollars to acquire it. Aftershock drops next year.
In the meantime, check out the trailer.
Hasta el proximo capitulo…
SOURCE: The Weinstein Company
