Since making his feature film debut with the awesome zombie movie Versus in 2000, director Ryuhei Kitamura has brought us such movies as Alive, Aragami, Azumi, Sky High, Godzilla: Final Wars, The Midnight Meat Train, No One Lives, Lupin the 3rd, Downrange, The Doorman, and The Price We Pay. Now Deadline reports that Kitamura has signed on to direct the rollercoaster thriller Thrill Ride.
Scripted by Chad Law and Christopher Jolley, Thrill Ride will show us what happens when a group of people, including two young women, who are trapped upside down on a roller coaster taken over by a mysterious saboteur threatening to drop them all one-by-one to their deaths.
United Film’s Gabriel Georgiev, Ellen Wander, and Jordan Dykstra are producing the film, which is expected to start filming in Bulgaria at Pro Cinema Studios in the fourth quarter of this year. Film Bridge International will be presenting the project to potential distributors at the Cannes Film Market next month.
Wander and Dykstra provided the following statement: “Thrill Ride is exactly the type of high-concept based thriller that our customers are looking for in the marketplace. With Ryuhei at the helm, we know his vision and execution will deliver thrills of the highest quality.“
Kitamura added: “As a hardcore rollercoaster fan since I was young, I immediately fell in love with this script filled with suspense, action, crazy ups and downs, turns, loops, and corkscrews at maximum speed. I can’t wait to get on a ride and bring life to the wildest rollercoaster imaginable.“
I haven’t seen every movie Kitamura has directed, but I have been following the progress of his career since seeing Versus at a 24-hour theatrical horror marathon back in 2003 and intend to get around to watch the movies I haven’t caught up on yet. Thrill Ride sounds like it will be a fun addition to his filmography, so I look forward to seeing how it’s going to turn out.
Are you a fan of Ryuhei Kitamura’s work? What do you think of him signing on to direct Thrill Ride? Let us know by leaving a comment below.