FILMING OF ‘WAITING FOR SUMMER’ BY SUCHET BUDON
It’s October 23rd 2023 – We have been filming WAITING FOR SUMMER (WORKING PRODUCTION TitLE ONLY) since April 2023. I decided to do this as we had to take a break from the filming of RAHANA, to look for a leading lady to star in that, we could only continue filming on that with her, so rather than not film anything, I decided to make a smaller movie in the meantime called WAITING FOR SUMMER.
WAITING FOR SUMMER (Working production title only) is set in the near-future, in the city of NEO-FRANKFURT and tells the story of Abraham who is an advertising contractor that has a strange affinity and love of the summer season, so much so that he does not work during the summer. The movie starts with Abraham on his way to an interview in Neo Frankfurt, for a company called SORAYA UNICORPS. Abraham is a jolly and confident character, or at least that is what it seems like until he arrives at the interview and he is given a test like nothing before…
WAITING FOR SUMMER (WORKING PRODUCTION TitLE ONLY), I wanted to make an action fairytale with action thriller elements – I wanted to have two heroes one being a decorated knight of the British order and the other being a heroic cool cowboy from Florida straight out of a classic western, I wanted to team these two characters up with Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks, have these characters interact in a magical ancient forest, and have some fun with that in an action thriller sense. With Hitchcock styled puzzles.
The setting is a 24 square mile park, in a dystopian Neo-Frankfurt, the park is a beautiful forest settings, which has contrasting areas, all with their own dangers and challenges. We start off near the entrance which has man-made lakes, a children’s fun-fair, and beautiful flowered walking areas with gardens, and then as the suspense and scary elements kick in, we move to the more dense wild forests, and mountainous areas, which have all sorts of dangers such as gun packing enemies, and even as one characters suggests ‘bears and wolves’. As a kid I loved movies like CLIFFHANGER, BATTLE ROYALE, and JURASSIC PARK. Where the environment is just as much a dangerous character as the villains of the piece.
I also spent a lot of time designing the characters and their costumes during pre-production –
Little Miss Reeves played by Aaradhya, her outfit I based on Red Riding Hood, and the character of Eliot from E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. The 80’s style red top and the light blue jeans with stars on them invoke the summer feeling. I wanted her to contrast with the adult characters and just pop out visually whenever the characters were on screen. Miss Reeves is the daughter of a US Navy Commander, and the sister of a decorated NAVY SEAL. So for a little girl she doesn’t run around screaming during the action and scares. The book that she carries around with her, is a rare children’s story book “Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Ancient Forest Stories’ by Michael Stallone.
Abraham Khan played by Fraz Awan, is an ex-Royal Air Force Captain – He is the English knight of the story, he behaves like a gentleman with suave characteristics, smartly dressed with a blue three-piece suit, and a confident manner. While Little Miss Reeves is the heart of the story, Abraham is the storyteller in a sense, as we see the events occur through his eyes mostly. In a sense he represents the audience. I based his costume on stars of a different generation of gentlemen like Cary Grant and David Niven.
Joseph Reeves played by Josh Catalano, is a Navy SEAL, a rather cool American, he is the cowboy in this mythology. I based him on leading action heroes I grew up watching, such as Harrison Ford, Richard Gere and not just American stars, I based his style on Chow Yun Fat, who is a childhood idol of mine, an iconic movie star from the East. His white suit which is odd for a contract meeting, is inspired by Chow Yun Fat in THE KILLER and Don Johnson from MIAMI VICE. So while Abraham is a hero with many aspects and a dark side, Joseph is a hero that just comes in and sweeps the audience off their feet as someone they cannot fault.
April Khan played by Julie Phung, is a young lady that gets caught up in the story unexpectedly and she is based on my love of female hero-characters like Ellen Ripley and Sarah Conner. Her costume which is a classical white dress, is something I wanted to invoke a feeling of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. The long black hair, white dress and her beautiful sleepy pretty-girl-looks, contrast with the massive guns she is forced to carry later for survival, and it makes the events seem even more disturbing.
Soraya Aetos played by Jess Skidmore, is a beautiful young billionairess who is also the owner of SORAYA CORPS, an advertising and technology company, SORAYA CORPS is also rumoured to be the front of something ‘else’. I wanted Soraya’s costume to be more the opposite of what a mogul business owner is, she is a positive character, who does whatever she chooses, so her dress is a pretty light blue, with flowers, not the typical office dress-code. Her actions and dialogue dictate who she is. And when Abraham first meets her, we see the obvious attraction he has for her, straight away.
My movie as a whole is meant to be a fun popcorn event, I aim for the audience to be thrilled and scared, and to be laughing and crying with the characters on their journey. I want it to be like the movies I enjoyed in the 80s and 90s. I am a big fan of movies like ALIENS, ET, John Woo’s THE KILLER, and LETHAL WEAPON, and I wanted to invoke the fun-factor, the emotional, and thrilling elements of those movies. I am inspired by directors like Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, as well as movie stars like Jackie Chan, and Chow Yun Fat.
At the time of writing this article in October 2023, filming on the movie is about 65-70% complete, we have half a dozen scenes left to film. These are mainly the climax and action scenes to do.
You can see the Autumn Sneak Preview here:
(NOTE: THIS IS A ROUGH PREVIEW WITHOUT ALL THE VISUAL EFFECTS AND WITHOUT BLOOD FX – AND IS ONLY PART OF THE MOVIE}