Lockdown was a tough time for everyone, especially the movie industry. Given the nature of set-life, production on all major film and television productions ground to a halt. Those with a passion for creating however, found inventive, and most importantly, safe, ways to continue working on smaller and more intimate productions. One such movie is Josephine Rose’s Touchdown, which screens at this year’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest as part of the First Blood strand.
House of the Dragon’s Clinton Liberty leads a cast which includes Cressida Bonas, Will Attenborough, and Jason Flemyng in an intimate story of human connection during a cataclysmic event. When meteor storms bring a new life form to Earth, global authorities implement emergency controls as they move in secret to eliminate the predators. A group of five friends who are separated in different countries risk everything to survive. Do they cower in place or face their fears and head out into the world to re-find each other as they face the monster? In the tradition of District 9 and Cloverfield, Touchdown is a grounded sci-fi adventure intended to speak of our time and the creeping growth of authoritarianism.
What makes Touchdown so compelling is its scale. Although filmed during the global lockdowns, the team of writer and director Josephine Rose, cinematographer Gerry Vasbenter, and Clinton Liberty and the rest of the cast, have created a film whose production dates are hard to believe. Whilst the terror of the pandemic is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story, it is hard to fathom how they pulled off a film of this scale when the world was closing up. Ahead of the world premiere of Touchdown at FrightFest, THN were able to speak to Clinton Liberty, Gerry Vasbenter, and Josephine Rose to discover how they made movie magic.
Touchdown screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Saturday 24th August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
