Given the current credit crunching and greenhouse gassing, it's a fortuitous time to make Fortuna, the story of a future following an economic meltdown and climate crises. Now Dominic Monaghan and Freddy Rodriguez have just signed up to star in this sci-fi film, for writer/director/co-star Barthelemy Grossman.
Set in 2100, a collapsed economy and climate change has basically eradicated the middle classes, leaving behind only the wealthy elite and the poor, teeming masses. To avoid revolt, the rich concoct a game called Fortuna, allowing one player in a thousand to win big and join the upper classes. But as Dominic Monaghan, Freddy Rodriguez and Barthelemy Grossman's characters play the game, they start to wonder why none of the game's participants are ever seen again. Hmmmm...
Shooting begins in Bulgaria for six weeks in November, with desolate sets being constructed and a Solyent Green feel apparently being evoked. This is Grossman's first English-language film (he's Swiss, and made the French 13m2 last year), so let's hope it does indeed turn out to be up there with, say, THX-1138 in the post-apocalyptic dystopia stakes, and not, say, Babylon AD.