The UK animation production company and Serbian-based Bauk Pictures have penned an agreement to co-produce a new animated sci-fi feature, Beckoning.
The companies are jointly launching the film at Berlinale this week via the JETS Initiative, which will see the project pitched to potential co-production partners and other backers. Beckoning will be one of the first features to be shot entirely using motion capture and leveraging the cutting-edge technological advances in Unreal Engine and MetaHuman. The production will be structured as a European co-production, with filming and animation taking place in the UK, Serbia, and Spain.
Lead Producers, Paul Schleicher and Dan Dixon have a long history of producing animation and VFX for Film, TV, Games and Advertising, as well as award-winning live-action genre shorts.
Writer/Director Sava Živković will helm the project. Živković’s credits include dozens of multi-million dollar video game cinematics with some of the world’s biggest titles and studios as well as a catalogue of independent shorts like Irradiation, which landed over three million views on Short of the Week.
Beckoning has been realised as a cutting edge short, also written and directed by Sava, with the support of an Epic Games MegaGrant as well as financial and hardware support from AMD. The film follows a shipwrecked astronaut who fights for survival, amidst a medieval witch-hunt. Beckoning is a gritty sci-fi genre film, where the past and future collide, exploring themes of redemption and motherhood, that will break the mould for an animated feature.
We’re thrilled to be launching our feature slate with Beckoning as a lead film. It resonates with all of the components we look for in a project; stylistically brave, creator driven, and underpinned with a depth of storytelling. All of this makes Sava a standout voice for us to collaborate with.
Dan Dixon, Lead Producer on Beckoning
What excites me the most about Beckoning, is the very personal and intimate character exploration of the lead character, Morgan, juxtaposed with the epic sci-fi setting of the future meeting the past.
The film explores what makes you a parent or guardian, along with themes of motherhood, loss, and how the skeletons from our past can take hold of our present.
Sava Živković, Writer and Director of Beckoning
Watch the trailer here and see the other JETS Initiative 2024 participants here.
