“Dead & Beautiful” English-language China-set vampire movie finds producers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Amsterdam-based lemming Film is teaming with Paris’ Les Petites Lumieres and Shanghai’s China Blue to produce “Dead & Beautiful” an English-language China-set vampire movie from Dutch helmer-scribe David Verbeek, Variety said.

A title at the Venice European Gap Financing Co-Production Market, which kicked off Friday, August 29 “Dead & Beautiful” centers on a group of rich Shanghai kids who, after a wild night of partying, turn into vampires. They decide to stick together, but as fear of discovery grows, they ask whether they can trust one another or are really immortal. By the time all is revealed, they will have to face the consequences of their actions.

“Dead & Beautiful” will be Verbeek’s next movie after he finishes “Full Contact,” now in post after a May shoot in Croatia.

While “Full Contact” is set outside Las Vegas, “Dead & Beautiful” returns Verbeek to the Asia setting of 2008’s multi-story “Shanghai Trance,” and 2010’s Cannes Un Certain Regard entry “R U There,” about a professional gamer who reconnects with his more human side in Taiwan.

“ ‘Dead & Beautiful’ plays with the genre of the vampire movie to explore the lifestyle of the growing number of international sons and daughters of extremely rich multinationals … ‘bloodsuckers’ in contemporary society,” Verbeek said.

Per Lemming producer Leontine Petit, China Blue’s involvement will allow the film distribution in China. He’s been there before: “Shanghai Trance” was co-produced by Shanghai Film Group, with the supervision of China Film Co-Production Corp., and opened on 250 screens in China.