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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Italy

All ready for Dampyr, a €15 million Italian megaproduction

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- Riccardo Chemello's debut feature, a fantasy action film based on the cult comic book of the same name and with an international cast, will debut at Italy's Lucca Comics & Games

All ready for Dampyr, a €15 million Italian megaproduction
Frida Gustavsson in Dampyr

The first Italian franchise entirely in English and with an impressive budget of over €15 million, the fantasy action film Dampyr [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, directed by first-time director Riccardo Chemello and based on the cult comic book of the same name, is the first film of the Bonelli Cinematic Universe and is set to open the next edition of Lucca Comics & Games, where it will have its world premiere. Co-produced by Eagle Pictures, Sergio Bonelli Editore and Brandon Box, the film will be released simultaneously in Italian cinemas on 28 October, with Eagle Pictures (here is the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWg2X9P6rJo).

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Dampyr, based on the first two albums of the comic series created by Mauro Boselli and Maurizio Colombo (published by Sergio Bonelli Editore in 2000, now numbering 300 albums), is scripted by Mauro Boselli, Giovanni Masi, Alberto Ostini, and Mauro Uzzeo. It is set during the Balkan war, in the early 1990s, and follows the adventures of Harlan. Persecuted by horrible nightmares, Harlan makes ends meet by pretending to be a Dampyr (in Slavic mythology, a being half-human and half-vampire) capable of ridding villages of what the superstitious inhabitants naively believe to be terrible curses linked to the world of vampires. But when he is summoned by soldiers attacked by bloodthirsty creatures, Harlan discovers the truth: he really is a Dampyr. While trying to confront a terrible 'Master of the Night,' Harlan must learn to manage his powers and discover his origins. Accompanying him is a renegade vampire and a soldier seeking revenge.

The cast is international: Dampyr is embodied by Wade Briggs (the Still Star Crossed and Please Like Me series), Emil Kurjak by Stuart Martin (Army of Thieves, the series Jamestown and The Medici) and Tesla by Frida Gustavsson (Tigers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ronnie Sandahl
film profile
]
, the series Vikings: Valhalla). Alongside them are David Morrissey (The Walking Dead), Sebastian Croft (Game of Thrones) and Luke Roberts (Game of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman). Behind the scenes, hair designer Giorgio Gregorini, Oscar winner for Best Makeup and Hairstyle in the film Suicide Squad; Makeup Designer Francesca Galafassi (Game of Thrones, Ben-Hur); Vladimir 'Furdo' Furdik as Fight Choreographer (Skyfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile
]
, Game of Thrones, The Witcher) and Lubomir Misak as Supervising Stunt Coordinator (Game of Thrones, The Last Legion, The New Pope [+see also:
series review
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
series profile
]
); Giovanni Casalnuovo as Costume Designer (Wanted, Romeo & Juliet, Beowulf). The producers are Roberto Proia, Vincenzo Sarno, and Andrea Sgaravatti.

The Bonelli Cinematic Universe is part of the project of Bonelli Entertainment, the production arm dedicated to the development of film and television projects based on its characters, such as the animated series Dragonero, an international co-production with Rai Kids, Power Kids and NexusTV, and the 10-episode live-action dedicated to Dylan Dog co-produced by SBE and James Wan's Atomic Monster.

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