Shooting is underway in Italy on psychological thriller “State of Consciousness” by U.S. director Markus Stokes (“Criminal Minds”), starring Emile Hirsch (“Into The Wild”) as a young man trapped in an institution where he is forced to take medication for a mental disorder he doesn’t have.
Cameras started rolling on the pic on Tuesday in the port city of Bari in the Southern Apulia region, Iervolino Entertainment announced in a statement. The shoot is further testament to the physical production going ahead in Italy, even after the country went into a semi-lockdown last week.
“State of Consciousness” is tapping into Italy’s tax incentives for production, which currently provide a rebate of up to 40%.
The statement said that Iervolino Entertainment, which is owned and operated by Italian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi, has inked a global distribution deal for “State of Consciousness” with Los Angeles-based indie Paradox Studios, providing Iervolino Entertainment a $4.8 million minimum guarantee for world rights, excluding Italy.
The deal on the film is part of a broader five-picture agreement.
In “State of Consciousness” nightmares and reality become indistinguishable to Stephen (Emile Hirsch) due to the medication he’s being forced to take for his supposed psychological disorder, according to promotional materials, which add that to regain his sanity and get back to his normal life, the protagonist sets out to escape.
Hirsch, after playing the lead in Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” more recently appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and will next be seen in U.S. producer Randall Emmett’s directorial debut “Midnight in the Switchgrass.”
Stokes, besides being a TV director on series such as “Criminal Minds,” “The Flash” and “The Rookie,” has extensive experience as a VFX artist having started his career at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, working on films in the “Star Wars” franchise and on “I, Robot,” among others.