Vertigo ramps up StreetDance, Monsters sequels

UK producer-distributor Vertigo Films is ramping up sequels for its hits StreetDance 3D and Monsters.

StreetDance 2 3D will start shooting June 6, again be directed by Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini, and George Sampson will take a larger role in the sequel.

Falk Hentschel and Sofia Boutella (of Nike ads fame) take the lead roles.

The shoot will travel from London to Paris, Rome, Berlin and Moscow, as the story follows a European super squad being formed to take on a top American group. Jane English again writes the script, and Vertigo’s Allan Niblo and James Richardson are producing.

The film, shooting for eight weeks, will have a budget of about £7m compared to £4m for the first one.

Vertigo’s Rupert Preston promises it will “up the ante” on the first film.

The BFI and BBC Films are backing, and the sequel is a co-production with Italy’s Eagle Pictures and Germany’s Film Eins.

Vertigo will release around Easter 2012.

Protagonist is handling sales and has sold to France (Metropolitan), Germany (Square One), Italy (Eagle) Benelux (E1), and other territories.

Monsters 2 will be directed by emerging hotshots Brent Bonacorso and Jesse Atlas, with original director Gareth Edwards serving as executive producer alongside actor Scoot McNairy and Vertigo’s Rupert Preston. Vertigo’s Niblo and Richardson have also brought in Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken from Between the Eyes as producers.

This story will continue by introducing a teacher living in a protected walled city, who has to go into the infected zone to find his long-lost brother, a former military man who is now a Col. Kurtz-esque figure. Niblo promises “lots more creatures” than the original.

No cast is attached yet but Niblo confirms there is a “quite a lot of interest.”

Vertigo told Screen that the project could shoot (for six weeks) in Argentina or the Dominican Republic.

Niblo assures fans that the sequel won’t betray the spirit of the original: “We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t find the right talent [in the two new directors]. Gareth loves their vision. People want to see more of this world.”

The film will be delivered at the end of 2012. Ingenious is also financing with Vertigo.

The budget will be bigger than Monsters but still under $5m, with Preston noting that like the original the sequel would deliver “massive bang for its buck.”

Monsters actor Scoot McNairy stars in another Vertigo production, a camping thriller called A Night In The Woods, directed by Richard Parry.

The film shot under the radar in Dartmoor and is in the final stages of post for an autumn release.

Vertigo will start shooting The Sweeney, written and directed by Nick Love and starring Ray Winstone and Plan B (aka Ben Drew).

That film will shoot fro October in London, on a budget of £4m. No sales company is attached yet.

Also shooting now is Vertigo production Pusher, a London-set remake of the Nicolas Winding Refn film now directed by Luis Prieto and starring Agyness Deyn and Richard Coyle.

Also, the company says it has a new project for Drive director Nicholas Winding Refn in development. Refn made Bronson and Valhalla Rising with Vertigo.

Vertigo’s slate also includes the 3D film adaptation of Horrid Henry (which will be released on July 29 on 450 screens) and the release of Fred Cavayé’s French thriller Point Blank starring Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gerard Lanvin, and Elena Anaya.