Nora Arnezeder (“The Famous Five”) and Maria Bello (“A History of Violence”) are set to co-star in “Hell in Paradise,” a female-powered thriller inspired by a true story and produced by EuropaCorp’s Virginie Besson-Silla (“Dogman”).
Penned by Karine Silla (“A Butterfly Kiss”), “Hell in Paradise” revolves around Nina, a young French girl who leaves her native Marseille and accepts her first job as a receptionist at a luxurious hotel resort on a magnificent island of the Maldives, hoping for a better life. But when a tragedy befalls the hotel, Nina is propelled in a relentless spiral of lies and manipulations. Wrongly accused and sentenced to life in prison, she will have no other choice but to run between traps and escape this paradise turned into hell.
Arnezeder and Maria Bello star opposite Josephine de la Baume, Alyy Khan, Shubahm Saraf and Ranjit Krishnama. Gregoire Melin’s Kinology handles international sales on the project and will introduce it to buyers at the Cannes Film Market. Currently in pre-production, “Hell in Paradise” will start shooting on May 13.
“This story really struck a chord with me because I felt for this young woman who has dreams and finds herself alone in a foreign place, far from home and has to fight to survive,” Besson-Silla told Variety. “She becomes an easy scapegoat and can’t count on her co-workers and the local justice system so she has to take control of her own destiny — it’s really a story of female empowerment.”
Citing “Midnight Express” as a reference, Besson-Silla described the film as a “tense thriller” unfolding in a fictive country in the middle of the Indian Ocean where this young woman is “caught in a web of lies, in a culture she knows nothing about, and she surrounded by men who see her as an easy prey.”
Besson-Silla said she and Leila Sy bonded over shared values and both have Senegalese origins, as well as the same vision for the film. “Hell in Paradise” shot mainly in English with some French dialogue at the start of the film which takes place in Marseille.
Melin pointed out “Hell in Paradise” will boast a “stellar production value with a backdrop worthy of “-‘White Lotus’ and a gripping and feverish atmosphere in the vein of ‘Midnight Express.’” “It’s exactly the type of thriller movies that EuropaCorp should do alongside its great action franchises and bigger films,” said the film industry veteran, referring to movies directed and/or produced by EuropaCorp founder Luc Besson, from “Taken” to “Lucy.” Melin worked many years at EuropaCorp before launching Kinology, his own sales vehicle.
Kinology recently handled Besson’s “Dogman,” and is also repping “Dracula: A Love Tale” which is in pre-production and will star Caleb Landry Jones and Christopher Waltz.
Sy is best known for directing “Street Flow” (“Banlieusards”), a 2016 action film she co-directed with Kery James for Netflix and topped the chart of the most watched movies on the streamer. The sequel, “Street Flow 2” came out last year.
