AFM: ‘Wyrmwood’ Director Kiah Roache-Turner Plots WWII Shark Thriller ‘Beast of War’

A new shark movie will join the already bloody waters of the American film market, this time from British banner Cornerstone.

The company is once again working with genre writer and director Kiah Roache-Turner (Lurch, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, Nekrotronic) about his upcoming survival action thriller War animal, in which a band of soldiers stranded in the open ocean must wage a nail-biting battle for survival against the ultimate apex predator: a great white shark. Cornerstone will handle global sales and distribution and will launch the project at the upcoming AFM.

Set in 1942, War animal follows a warship transporting hundreds of Australian soldiers across the Timor Sea to the front lines of World War II. Suddenly Japanese fighter jets scream from the sky, and within minutes the ocean turns into an inferno of steel, fire, oil and blood. With the ship destroyed, a handful of soldiers build a makeshift raft from floating debris as they cling to their lives. Tensions run high between the hot-headed and terrified young men as they work together in an attempt to survive. But their greatest battle is yet to come. In the dark below, a great white shark hunts the wreck, attracted by the smell of fresh blood in the water.

The film is produced by Blake Northfield of Bronte Pictures (Streamline, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, Escape, and Evasion) and Pictures in Paradise’s Chris Brown (Lurch, Day breakers, The Railroad Man) and will begin production in Australia and Malta in 2024. CreatureNFX’s director Paul Trefry, known for his work with James Cameron, Ridley Scott and Baz Luhrmann and whose credits include Alien: Covenant And Unbrokenwill create the practical creature effects from his studio in Australia.

Roache-Turner started his career in the commercial world and released his debut film in 2015 Wyrmwood: Way of the Dead which premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin. His follow-up feature Necrotonicstarring Monica Bellucci, premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and Wyrmwood: Apocalypse won the Audience Award at the 2021 Sydney Film Festival. Cornerstone is also handling global sales and distribution of Kiah’s upcoming arachnaphobia horror Lurch which will be released by Studiocanal in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland and Benelux.

“We loved working with Kiah Lurch.” said Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder commented. “He is a kinetic filmmaker with a deep respect for the genre and we know he will deliver a distinctive and adrenaline-fueled shark film.”