Maria Ripoll’s tragic sea adventure film Wave is finally set to go ahead after four years in gestation with several leading European producers attached, including Belgium’s Banana Films, Spain’s Kanzaman Films and Ireland’s Samson Films.

The $7m project has passed through tha hands of various producers and actors and been positioned to shoot in different locations, including Spain and the UK. Now it is finally set to go into production on August 3 in Ireland for three weeks before moving to Luxembourg until the end of September.

Director Maria Ripoll has been one of the mainstays of the project and is set to remain at the helm with co-production duties shared between Spain’s Kanzaman Films, Belgium’s Banana Films, Luxembourg’s Delux Productions, Ireland’s Samson Films and Germany’s Maag Film. Jan Fantl is serving as executive producer.

Based on Louise Longo’s bestseller Let Me Survive, the film will tell the story of a family who go on a cruise but are then stuck out at sea during a storm and have to fend for their lives in a life raft. Marie-Laure Berthelin, Greg Latter and Rafa Russo are adapting the script.

The cast will be lead by some exciting international actors, including Antje Traue (Pandorum, Georgia), Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, Valkyrie, Downfall), Jordi Molla (Knight & Day, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) and Marianne Faithfull (Paris, Je T’Aime).

“The director, Ripoll (If Only, Tortilla Soup) is very excited that after four years’ preparation the film now goes in to production,” Jean Luc Van Damme of Banana Films told Screendaily. “The film will be ready in the first part of 2011.”

Spain’s 6 Sales is handling international rights and has re-sold to Benelux (Kinepolis Film Distribution), German TV (ADR/Degeto), Poland (Kino Swiat), the Middle East (Shooting Stars) and Switzerland (Rialto).

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