Kiah Roache-Turner

Source: Cornerstone Films

Kiah Roache-Turner

UK-based sales firm Cornerstone will launch Second World War shark thriller Beast Of War at next month’s American Film Market, ahead of production on the film beginning in 2024 in Australia and Malta.

The film sees Cornerstone reunite with Australian filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, with whom it previously collaborated on spider horror Sting, which Studiocanal is set to release in the UK, Australia-NZ, France, Germany, Switzerland and Benelux.

Set in 1942, Beast of War pits a band of soldiers stranded in the open ocean against a great white shark.

Cornerstone will handle worldwide sales and distribution on the project, which it will present for the first time at AFM. It is produced by Blake Northfield for Bronte Pictures, with Chris Brown for Pictures In Paradise, both of Australia.

Roache-Turner’s first feature Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2015, with follow-up Nekrotonic starring Monica Bellucci debuting at Toronto in 2018.

Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder described Roache-Turner as “ a kinetic film-maker with a deep respect for the genre and we know he will deliver a distinctive and adrenaline-fuelled shark movie.”