Raven Banner And Sinister Cinema To Showcase TURBO KID In Canada Next Month!

RKSS's award-winning forthcoming post-apocalyptic fantasy fare, Turbo Kid, has seen quite the electric journey from its inception as a shortfilm entry to a fully-fledged and dazzling epic. The reviews are in and the fallout is nothing short of upworthy, and with the film releasing soon in select territories to expand after next month, I'm fairly certain at this point that audiences won't be disappointed.

I haven't been able to screen it myself, but I'm sure enough of the tone among folks who have, and suffice it to say I can't wait to get my butt into a theater seat for this one thanks to North American distributor Epic Pictures Group. Simultaneously, Canadian distributor Raven Banner Releasing is granting a nationwide release throughout Canada on August 27 and 28 in select Cineplex outlets as part of Sinister Cinema's monthly series. This ought to be interesting to attend there, aye?

Anyway, I allege more info can be found here. Otherwise, the details are below!

RAVEN BANNER RELEASING Presents

A SINISTER CINEMA PRESENTATION

FROM QUEBEC’S “ROADKILL SUPERSTAR” FILM TRIO
A FUN AND BLOODY POST-APOCALYPTIC HOMAGE

TURBO KID
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY FRANÇOIS SIMARD, ANOUK WHISSELL, YOANN-KARL WHISSELL

RIDES INTO CANADIAN THEATRES:

AUGUST 27
CINEPLEX THEATRES – ONE NIGHT ONLY
TORONTO, VANCOUVER, OTTAWA, HAMILTON, EDMONTON, CALGARY, WINNIPEG, HALIFAX

AUGUST 28
TORONTO – CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS and CARLTON CINEMAS (week runs)
OTTAWA – MAYFAIR THEATRE (limited engagement)
WATERLOO - PRINCESS THEATRE (limited engagement)
EDMONTON – METRO THEATRE (limited engagement)
VANCOUVER – RIO THEATRE (limited engagement)
KITCHENER – APOLLO THEATRE (limited engagement)
HALIFAX – CINEPLEX PARK LANE (week run)

AUGUST 28 AVAILABLE ON VOD – BELL, iTUNES, ROGERS, SHAW, VIMEO

“A pitch-perfect pastiche that never mock its inspirations"- The Hollywood Reporter
"Feels like no other film in the last decade"- Slash Film
"A cult classic in the waiting" – Twitch Film
"Perhaps the most colorful film ever made with a post apocalyptic setting... a loud, energetic homage to Eighties kitsch” – Film Comment

(Toronto – July 22, 2015) Imagine a Mad Max-ish world where the gas shortage has gone on just a little longer – and hard-pedaling death races take place on BMX bikes. It’s the low-tech post-apocalyptic milieu of Turbo Kid.

Set on a degraded Earth in a fictional 1997, Turbo Kid is a cartoonishly-bloody tongue-in-cheek nod to the last-humans-on-Earth genre that has delighted horror and genre fans at festivals from SXSW to Sundance.

Turbo Kid will play as part of Raven Banner’s much-acclaimed Sinister Cinema series, taking over select Cineplex locations nationwide for a one-night only screening of this instant cult favourite on August 27. The next day, August 28, the film will open for one-week runs in Toronto and Halifax, and will also have limited engagements in Ottawa, Waterloo, Edmonton, Vancouver and Kitchener.

The film will also be available on VOD platforms including Bell, iTunes, Rogers, Shaw, and Vimeo on August 28

It’s a triumphant first feature for Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissel, the Montreal filmmaking collective known as RKSS (Roadkill Superstar). The family-act (Yoann-Karl and Anouk are siblings, Anouk and Francois are married) had been making cutting-edge film shorts for a decade before their quickie adventure T Is For Turbo created a splash at the ABCs Of Death anthology contest. Pushed by the event’s producers, the Canadian/New Zealand co-production Turbo Kid was born.

Stars Munro Chambers (Degrassi: The Next Generation) as The Kid, an orphaned collector of memorabilia who roams the wasteland in search of touchstones from a past he doesn’t remember (and whose dreamworld revolves around battered comic books starring a hero named Turbo Man).
His grim routine is interrupted, however, by an oddly-childlike young woman named Apple (Laurence Lebeouf), who cheerfully but clingingly insists on being his friend. The two soon find themselves embroiled in a war-of-vengeance between a cowboy named Frederic (Aaron Jeffery) and the villain-of-villains Zeus (Michael Ironside). Add the discovery of a lost piece of super-hero technology, and you’ve got the makings of a lo-fi action mini-masterpiece.

“Turbo Kid is kind of inspired by movies we grew up on,” says Yoann-Karl. “There are elements of The Goonies and (the 1983 crime/action film) BMW Bandits.”

“We were obsessed by BMX Bandits,” says Anouk.

“And there’s Road Warriors, of course,” Francois says, “and Italian rip-offs like The New Barbarians and The Bronx Warriors.”

“It’s not like we were laughing at those movies. We really wanted to honour them,” Yoann-Karl says. “We see this as a love letter and an homage.”

Watch The Rad New Trailer For TURBO KID!

From its short film inception in 2011 to its subsequent development and production in the last four years, R.K.S.S. Collective directing trio Anouk Whissell, François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissell have made sheer headway in the festival circuit with their new retro-powered sci-fi action epic, Turbo Kid. From Sundance and SXSW to Fantaspoa and Neuchatel, the new film sets a tone for a niche long keen on nostalgic tropes with dazzling special effects and much of them being delightfully practical between costume design and the visbly gory action sequences.

There's a certain genius to this kind of filmmaking though, and not a lot of filmmakers can do this as much as they may try. That said, Turbo Kid certainly lends itself the cult status it is being given by many who have seen it, including the charmed critics lucky to catch this one in earlier screenings, and when you have a majority that approving, it's pretty much fair to cast skepticism aside. No, a film like this obviously isn't for everyone, but I'm sure Epic Pictures Group hopes everyone goes and sees this movie in the next two months when it releases on August 23, 2015 on VoD and in limited theaters. Hell, bring a friend or several!

SYNOPSIS:

In a post-apocalyptic future a young solitary scavenger obsessed with comic books must face his fears and become a reluctant hero when he meets a mysterious girl. From horror masterminds Ant Timpson (The ABCs Of Death 1 & 2, Housebound) and Jason Eisener (Hobo With A Shotgun).

Actress Laurence Leboeuf and cult favorite thesp Michael Ironside join lead actor Munro Chambers in this hyper-dazzling epic laden with violence, lazers, desert warfare and a bustling soundtrack from Le Matos. Watch the new trailer below!

TURBO KID Powers Up In The Newest Teaser!

Just heading into the last leg of its current run at Sundance is the much-hyped BMX-charged fantasy thrill-ride from Canada-New Zealand film collective, R.K.S.S., Turbo Kid. A few clips have already made their way online but we now have an official teaser as of a few days ago, and it's every bit of nostalgic fun you could probably imagine.

SYNOPSIS:

It's 1997. In a ruined post-apocalyptic world, the orphaned Kid survives on his own through drought-ridden nuclear winter, traversing the Wasteland on his BMX, scavenging for scraps to trade for a scant supply of water. When his perpetually chipper, pink-haired new best friend Apple is kidnapped by a minion of evil overlord Zeus, the Kid summons the courage of his comic book hero and prepares to deliver turbocharged justice to Zeus, his buzzsaw-handed sidekick Skeletron, and their vicious masked army. 

Bolstered by a pitch-perfect synth score, and clever and cheeky period details, co-directors François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell create a raucous retro-futuristic action comedy that pays homage to '80s movies great and small, while adding their own flair with inventive and exuberant violence and gore (prepare for disemboweling by exercycle). Sci-fi legend Michael Ironside delivers with malevolence and glee as the larger-than-life Zeus, a despicable villain with joie de vivre.

Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf and Michael Ironside star. Watch the teaser below courtesy of the film's current North American distributor, Epic Pictures Group.

TURBO KID Gets A New Red-Band Clip

Falling short of its entry into the 2012 horror anthology, The ABC's Of Death, didnt prove to be an impediment at all for the folks over at Montreal-based film group, Road Kill Super Star. Their gore-filled 2011 post-apocalyptic short, T Is For Turbo, certainly had its appeal enough for the company to move forward with a feature film production late last year now in the form of Turbo Kid with ABC's Of Death producer Ant Timpson and Hobo With A Shotgun helmer Jason Eisener also producing.

SYNOPSIS:

In a post-apocalyptic parallel future of 1997, an orphaned teenager called The Kid (Munro Chambers) scavenges the Wasteland searching for relics from a better time - the 1980s. During one of his expeditions he meets Apple (Laurence Leboeuf), a mysterious girl with a rather large secret. As their relationship deepens, they accidentally run afoul of Zeus (Michael Ironside), the self-proclaimed leader of the Wasteland who now controls the world most precious commodity: fresh water. When Zeus' gang kidnaps Apple, The Kid joins forces with Frederick (Aaron Jeffrey), the laconic leader of the legendary Arm-Wrestling Clan. Armed with little more than blind faith and an ancient turbo-charged weapon, The Kid must fulfill his ultimate destiny: destroy Zeus, avenge his parents' death, and get the girl of his dreams.

IGN (via Twitchfilm) has a brand new clip from the film as it makes its way to the Sundance film festival before getting its initial release in Canada and the U.S. Edwin Wright and Romano Orzari also star.

Watch the clip below, and for good measure, check out the original shortfilm in the player just beneath with the old cast.