Locarno Action Spectacle ‘Topakk’ Introduces ‘Flawed’ Hero, Debuts Trailer, Racks Up Sales: ‘We Are Doing It the Old-School Way’ (EXCLUSIVE)
04.08.2023 - 08:51
/ variety.com
Marta Balaga Raven Banner Entertainment continues to rack up sales for Richard V. Somes’ action spectacle “Topakk.” “Topakk”(“Trigger”) has been sold to Aud (South Korea), Superfine Films (India), Kinologistika (CIS and the Baltics) and Lighthouse (German-speaking Europe). It’s not the end of good news, as the film – debuting its trailer and produced by Fusee, with Strawdogs Studio Production and Nathan Studios co-producing – is also set to bow at Locarno next week.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I have never imagined it,” admits the director. In “Topakk,” which he co-wrote with Jim Flores and Will Fredo, Somes shows a man struggling with PTSD.
Discharged from the army, he finds himself in the middle of a different kind of conflict when a drug peddler seeks his protection against a vigilante death squad. “I am really inspired by the 1980s action films. It all started with ‘First Blood’ or even [Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer] ‘Commando.’ I was also thinking of that whole ‘reluctant hero’ subgenre, of ‘Die Hard,’ ‘Lethal Weapon’,” lists Somes.
“In my films, I always want this kind of character too. Someone who is very flawed, very human. Not invincible at all.
When it came to Miguel, I created him also based on the people I actually met, here in the Philippines. There are so many security guards who once wanted to be decorated soldiers. Now, they are just trying to survive.” Just like his protagonists, desperate to make ends meet and already used to violence.
“In the Philippines, we are living in a very gritty, very challenging environment. You always meet people with a mysterious past, which makes you wonder: ‘What happened to them?!’ They are all scarred. It could be war or some personal demons.” While his home country has
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