The Deadly Wishes
The Deadly Wishes is a film about the destructive influence of society and wealth, and the choice between vice and virtue.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Fantasy Drama (100 min.)
Written by EVANGELO KIOUSSIS
Adapted from the classic novel “The Wild Ass’s Skin” by Honore de Balzac
Raphael, a young man on the verge of suicide, wanders into an Old Curiosity Shop and discovers a piece of Wild Ass’s Skin inscribed with a message in Sanskrit — that he who owns The Skin will have any wish granted, but that each wish will cause the skin to shrink. When The Skin disappears, its owner dies.
Thinking it a hoax, Raphael takes The Skin, only to find its prophecy come true — more literally than he’d imagined. His dreams of wealth and love materialise, but The Skin also shrinks from his most banal wishes and Raphael finds his health deteriorating along with it.
It is not unusual in the world of opera, or with cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare, for a classic tale to be re-set in another time and place – one that makes an old story come alive in an exciting new way.
Our setting for The Deadly Wishes is updated to a fictional, stylised modern world, inspired by 19th century futurist artists’ imaginings of the 20th. This powerful classic finds its ultimate telling in a sprawling world of extremes – where the disparity between lust and love, rich and poor, is exaggerated beyond reality.
From slums and roaring industrial forges to decadent orgies and nature spas, Balzac’s timeless tale of the quest to defeat mortality is told as never before possible.
The newest technological strides in CG storytelling are no longer the preserve of the science-fiction blockbuster. The present affordability of the tools required to paint on a vast digital canvas will see The Deadly Wishes become a highly original and groundbreaking CG Art Film.