EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a first clip for Studiocanal slasher pic Wake Up, which debuts today at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.
Heralding from the French-Canadian directing trio RKSS, comprising Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell and François Simard, the film follows a group of hot-headed Gen Z activists who find themselves brutally hunted after they become trapped in a furniture superstore during an act of environmental protest gone wrong.
Pic is written by Alberto Marini, based on an original idea by Martin Soudan, and presented by Borsalino Productions and Studiocanal. The film will next screen at Spain’s Sitges Film Festival as part of the Oficial Fantàstic Competition.
Starring are Benny O.Arthur (Sky and Canal + Django series), Jacqueline Moré (The Anarchists’s Dream), Charlotte Stoiber (Downfall), Kyle Scudder (Netflix’s upcoming In Love All Over Again), and newcomers Alessia Yoko Fontana and Tom Gould along with Irish actors Turlough Convery (Black Mirror) and Aidan O’Hare (My Sailor, My Love).
Producers are Gaël Nouaille and Laurent Baudens, executive producers are Adrià Monés, Gaël Nouaille, and Maud Petit, and pic is co-produced by Yann Degay and Barnaby Wass. Studiocanal handles sales on the project which was shot in Gran Canaria.
After making their debuts with 2015 Sundance feature Turbo Kid (Winner of SXSW’s 2015 Midnighters Audience Award), RKSS made their sophomore feature with Summer of 84 (Sundance 2018) and more recently, made the comic book adaptation We Are Zombies, which premiered at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, where it took the Audience Award Gold for Best Québec Feature, and also screens at Fantastic Fest.
“As soon as we read the script, the core concept and the timely subject were so compelling to us, that we immediately could visualize the film and we knew we had to direct it and bring our own signature into the project,” said RKSS of Wake Up. “A slasher in a closed furniture store and warehouse makes an exciting playground for sure. We’re so excited to world premiere this movie at Fantastic Fest. It’s going to be a first for us, and we cannot wait to meet with the crowd and team!”