CHAINED, is a psychological crime thriller from Vancouver's award winning director, Titus Heckel and was filmed in Kelowna! We interviewed Titus as he wrapped principal photography.
STARRING A STELLAR CAST
Starring Adrian Holmes, Aleks Paunovic Andrea Auger and Marlon Kazadi
PHOTO OF MARLON ON R - BY VANCOUVER HEADSHOT PHOTOGRAPHER
Telefilm-supported psychological crime thriller, CHAINED, the latest feature film from Vancouver-based award-winning writer and director Titus Heckel, started filming in Kelowna December 5th, 2019.
CHAINED focuses on Taylor, an abused and bullied 13-year-old and the friendship he forges with Jim, a criminal he discovered chained inside an abandoned warehouse. A violent betrayal between the duo turns the abused into the abuser. With the consequences-and victims of Jim’s crimes closing in, Taylor finds himself in over his head.
Our family is growing! Welcome @adrianholmes and @andrea.agur to Chained 2020. So excited for this day! @telefilm_canada @creativebcs @superchanneltv @hollywoodsuite
Starring Aleks Paunovic (VAN HELSING, SNOWPIERCER) as Jim and rising star Marlon Kazadi (CHILD’S PLAY and the upcoming GHOSTBUSTERS 2020) as Taylor, the film also features Canadian Screen Award winning actor Adrian Holmes (star of 19-2 and the new Netflix series V WARS) as Taylor’s father, Pete. “We are thrilled to have this immensely talented trio on board to help tell this powerful, provocative story,” says producer Rachelle Chartrand. “With all the service work being done in the province, and country, it is a testament to the brilliance of the script and the complex characters Titus has created that Aleks and Adrian are doing a Canadian indie film at this stage of their illustrious careers. And to discover the young powerhouse, Marlon Kazadi, on the verge of breaking into stardom, is a gift.”
Fun times filming at the ‘Castillo house’ with @adrianholmes @marlonkazadi123, @andrea.agur and @roarkcritchlow!
The film has already garnered numerous accolades and secured broadcast deals with Super Channel and Hollywood Suite.
Winners of the Telefilm sponsored JETS Program, an international coproduction and pitching competition held during the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, the screenplay was also a semi-finalist in the 2018 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, which is put on by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Welcome @alekspaun! You’ve been a member of the team for awhile, but it is awesome to have you finally here to play for real!
CHAINED, along with producer Rachelle Chartrand, was one of 6 CDN features to be chosen for the Producers Lab at the 2018 Whistler Film Festival. CHAINED received development funding from the highly competitive Harold Greenberg Fund (Bell Media) as well as Creative BC, and is a recipient of 2019 Canada Feature Film Fund from Telefilm.
Crew and actress Leia Madu starring as Nora! It’s not just the lead actors who are rocking it! We have been so lucky to have found incredible talent for all our supporting roles here in Kelowna!
Teresa May Agency & Shawna Whitney
Leia Madu is a grade 9 student at Dr. Knox middle school. Leia was introduced to acting when she was 9 years old. She attended Kelowna Dance and Performing Arts, taking dance, then she discovered they offered a Musical Theatre program. Leia got the part of Annie, and fell in love. She took classes locally and performed in kids shows at Kelowna Actors Studio, Bumbershoot Theatre, New Vintage Theatre, Dr. Knox theatre and was introduced to Theatre Kelowna Societies Christmas shows by her Grandma Deb, whom she was on stage with last year. Leia was interested in pursuing acting further and asked her parents to find an agent for her. However because she was also involved in rugby, fieldhockey, soccer, voice lessons and attending middle school they were hesitant to search out an agent in Vancouver.
Then this past summer, they discovered a new local talent agency, Teresa May Agency. Teresa set a meeting with Leia and her parents, and due to Teresa's background knowledge, experience, and warmth Leia signed on with Teresa. Fast forward a year or so, and Teresa arranged an audition for Leia for the role of Nora, in the movie Chained. Leia got the part and is currently filming her first movie. Leia is very appreciative of the opportunity and excited to see more work happening in Kelowna.
THE TALENTED CREW - Costume designer Maxine Baker and Assistant CD @kristy_rempel, @jimcliffe Production Designer and @welbourne_lori.
Titus Heckel’s 2014 directorial debut, WITH CHILD, was shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival and nominated for both the Best World Showcase at the SoHo International Film Festival and the Flash Forward Award at the Busan International Film Festival. Titus is also a multi-award-winning writer.
Lead producer Rachelle Chartrand is an award-winning producer, screenwriter and past-president of Women in Film & Television Vancouver. Rounding out the team is 15-year veteran producer Chester Sit, whose projects have been distributed on APTN, CBC, Super Channel and OMNI Television.
Rachelle Chartrand is an award-winning screenwriter, producer and past-president of Women in Film and Television Vancouver. Rachelle is president of My Precious Pictures as well as a cofounder and CEO of Ignite Worldwide Media, a new social-conscious media company with an innovative online audience engagement platform.
MPP has a few projects in development. First up is the Telefilm supported feature film CHAINED, a psychological crime thriller written and to be directed in the fall of 2019 by Titus Heckel. Awards and accolades achieved so far include being a semi-finalist in the 2018 Academy Nicholl’s Fellowship, as well as being a winner in the Telefilm sponsored JETS Program, an international coproduction and pitching competition held during the Berlin International Film Festival (2018). The project has also received Polish & Packaging funding from the Harold Greenberg Fund. Rachelle was also one of six producers from across Canada chosen to participate in the Producers Lab at the 2018 Whistler Film Festival.
In addition to her work in film and media, Rachelle is a published author. She has a Bachelor of Secondary Education with a major in physics and minor in math. She has an eclectic teaching career as well. In addition to teaching in the public school system, Rachelle has taught in South Korea and India, as well as an independent school for at-risk youth and young offenders in Burnaby, BC and a private education centre in Vancouver working primarily one-on-one with FASD, autistic and dyslexic students.
Dec, 23, 2019, And it’s a wrap on this ‘one take wonder’ as Titus calls him! It’s really hard for me to express how grateful I am and what a superstar in the making @marlonkazadi123 is! He was our Taylor from the moment we saw him but he blew our expectations (and that of the entire cast and crew) out of the water! Behold my people, Marlon Kazadi has arrived.
CREW
Q & A with Titus Heckel
It's a day before Christmas Eve and we have on the phone, Titus Heckel. We are going to talk all things Chained. It's Titus’s new feature that was filmed in Kelowna and a dear friend of ours, Teresa May connected us with his PR. Titus , who is the director and the writer we have on the line and want to talk with him about his ever-growing career making films. CHAINED already has so many amazing accolades, and we cannot wait to see it. Producer Rochelle has been sharing on @mypreciouspictures behind the scenes of CHAINED. We are big fans of Adrian Holmes. We just watched him in the new series V Wars and he stars in the film!
Titus: Yes Adrian Holmes is amazing!
IHW: You literally had your wrap party today.
Titus: Yeah, yeah. Today was oddly enough my Producer's birthday, so we were able to celebrate that a little bit over drinks and, and discuss, how amazing it's been working together. Because of all the challenges involved and the memories associated with it right now it's still emotional for me and i'll never forget working with the stars and the amazing crew as well.
IHW: I feel that you love the family aspect of being on set. Is that right?
Titus: Yeah. I firmly believe that the only way that a film gets made and made well is if everyone needs to feel that they're a part of it and everyone needs to feel respected and honored. And as long as you're doing that, people tend to be kind and not letting egos get in the way.
IHW: I believe in my heart that film is one of the most important industries, if not the most, because what do we all do when we go home? We watch Netflix, we watch TV and Films for entertainment. We we want to be inspired. We want to get away from what's going on within our own world. It can be therapeutic but the people who are watching it don't necessarily know what the people are going through to create it.
So that's why I love interviewing because you can find out what did they go through, like the character in CHAINED they go through quite a bit. A young adolescent, a 13 years old who is being bullied.
Titus: The topics in the scenes that are being shot were definitely full of emotion.
Just chilling on the chilly set with the illustrious @adrianholmes who is knocking the heck out of this complex layered character! We can’t wait for everyone to watch his performance! So blessed to have him on board.
Stars @alekspaun and @adrianholmes on set together.
IHW: So tell us more about filming and all the amazing actors that you got to work with.
Titus: Our three actors who are the principal leads were incredible to work with. I couldn't have asked for a better cast. I can start with Adrian Holmes, who is just spectacular. I considered his performance to be pristine. I don't know if he intends to be that way but once he dials in the performance, it's always pristine and exactly what I was looking for. He's always on point. And I love that as a director.
Aleks Paunovic who plays the character Jim, he was such a creative guy. He always come up with new ideas to improve the performance and it was really lovely to have someone who is taking ownership of the role in such a creative way.
And then of course, our lead actor, Marlin Kazadi, who is just a wonder. He's 15 years old. And that kid just showed up, ready to go. Day one and I wasn't sure, but it turns out he is a phenomenal actor, just phenomenal. Everyone who worked with him on this set couldn't believe what they were watching, he always knew his lines. There was only one scene where he needed a line.
IHW: He just got off Child's Play in Ghostbusters 2020 didn't he?
Titus: Yeah, absolutely. I don't, I mean, he's got in there and see it. Same thing with Adrian with V Wars. I know it's true. I think, um. This film will be a breakout role for Alex.
IHW: What other projects have you worked on?
Titus: I was hired to write a script for a Lifetime thriller TV movie, It's not something that would've been something I would've chosen to do independently, it's a really fun project to write. I really enjoyed writing it. So that, I think that happened last year. Sometimes, these projects kind of bleed in together in terms of timing when I did them, I don't remember sometimes.
As any producer knows, a way to a crew’s heart is through catering and @beteased @chipdachef won us all over with their delicious meals, snacks and hot beverages!! I tried to make my way through their selection of teas but couldn’t do it. I’ll pick up where I left off on the next show. Thanks Sharon and Mike!
IHW: Oh yeah, of course. So much happens from the time that you message your friends say, all right, I want to do this project, from writing it, to getting on set filming to putting it out. It's like your own child.
Titus: Totally. It totally is. I've been, I started working on this project almost three and a half, four years ago now. I couldn't believe when we wrapped principal photography. I like to see the actors embody what I wrote on the page.
IHW: What made you make the movie in Kelowna?How did that come about?
Titus: Well, we wanted to make a film that looked like a city like Detroit, with a lot of urban decay. And we knew that in Vancouver, it would be hard to find that just because everything is renovated now and it's really hard to find those kinds of locations. Secondly we also knew that it would be way more expensive to shoot in Vancouver then Kelowna. This is more of a can do attitude and a willingness to make it happen feel. What we weren't sure about with the crew. Like could we find the crew? Once we located our production manager connected to crew and they were everything we needed.
IHW: There is a lot of buzz, especially from the connections in Kelowna that it's might biggest upcoming project to be shot there as of now. You're bringing attention to Kelowna. So you're really making a difference for Canadian filmmakers to open their minds to shoot a low budget and to go for their dreams.
IHW: So we've been following the Instagram @mypreciouspiactures itself and all seeing the amazing actors that are in the projects. I just love to seeing films that are so authentic with the relationships behind them. So I'm excited to see the film and how people are going to really be able to see real chemistry with each other.
Titus: Yeah, they all do. And I mean, the crew definitely hds a chemistry. It was really fun to watch that come together and it was quite immediate actually. '
IHW: The relationships are the most important part of art. I always think that as well.
Titus: We'll be releasing it later on in 2020 and working on new new projects for 2020.
IHW: Thank you so much for your time, right before Christmas. You are a jem for being a true professional and we are super excited to support CHAINED and we can't wait to see it.
Titus: Thank you so much!
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