Production has begun in Auckland on the dance feature that Beverly Hills-based Cinema Management Group (CMG) will introduce to world buyers at the AFM.

Eight-time World Hip Hop Championships winner Parris Goebel serves as choreographer on the coming-of-age tale about an aspiring hip hop dancer who is invited to audition for the best crew in the country.

Film newcomer Tia Maipi, a member of world championship hip hop crew The Royal Family, will play the lead.

Kherington Payne from the US plays female lead Sasha and herself starred in the reality show So You Think You Can Dance and was a principal dancer for Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream tour.

Australian Idol winner Stan Walker will play the role of the lead’s best friend.

Tammy Davis will direct and Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post serves as post-production partner. Vendetta Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.

“We are very excited to be selling this high-energy, exotic and incredibly choreographed film to the buyers at AFM,” said CMG chief Edward Noeltner.

“We are confident this will pick up where the Step Up franchise left off and we see this as the next international music and dance sensation with terrific worldwide box office potential.”

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