Popular Ben X on its way to big screen
After the bestselling book and equally popular stage play, a film adaptation was bound to follow and, in fact, Nic Balthazar’s Ben X – produced by Erwin Provoost and Peter Bouckaert of MMG Film & TV Production (The Alzheimer Case [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Storm Force 10) – is currently in post-production.
A theatre and film critic and journalist, as well as a popular Flemish television presenter, Balthazar wrote a book whose aim was to encourage young people to read more. Moved by a tragic event – the suicide of a young autistic boy traumatised by constant harassment – he wrote a novel that became a real success in Flanders: "Niets was alles wat hij zei (Nothing Was All He Said)".
This success encouraged the presenter to adapt his book for the stage and the play, entitled Nothing, was also a hit, attracting almost 35,000 theatre-goers so far (the show is still running in Flanders) and inspiring Balthazar to script and direct his feature debut, starring young theatre actor Greg Timmermans.
Ben X tells the story of a young, slightly autistic boy, bullied by his classmates who cook up their revenge in the form of Ben’s favourite video game, in which he is the hero. Produced on a €1.5m budget, the film was shot entirely in HD over six weeks and includes photography and special shots for the film from one of the most popular MMORPGs ("massively multiplayer online role-playing games"), ArchLord, created by British specialists Codemasters.
Co-produced by Dutch outfit Bos Bros Film & TV Productions and supported by the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF) and theNerdelands Fonds voor de Film, Ben X also received backing from the Media Plus Programme.
The title is slated for an October 2007 release through Kinepolis Film Distribution, who also financed the production.
(Translated from French)
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