Have you noticed the busy film set in town over the past few weeks? Production is underway on the thriller “KIDNAPPED”, a feature film currently shooting in Port Douglas and surrounds.
The story follows Savannah Morgan (Clare van der Boom) a woman living her dream with her husband Brad (Todd Lasance) and their four-year-old daughter, Aria, on a resort vacation in her birth country of Australia… until Aria goes missing from the resort’s Kidz Club and it becomes her worst nightmare.
Suspicions point everywhere, but ultimately the heart-pounding race to find the little girl alive leads Savannah to a discovery about her family that she never saw coming….
KIDNAPPED is the latest project from The Steve Jaggi Company, and is a co-production with Canadian production company Sepia Films. The film is written by Australian writer Shanrah Wakefield and directed by Canadian director Vic Sarin.
Set in a coastal paradise, KIDNAPPED is an edge-of-your-seat film starring Claire van der Boom (Palm Beach, Pulse) and Todd Lasance (Spartacus, The Vampire Diaries, The Flash) who will next be seen in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse.
“I have filmed all over the world and it is fantastic to be back in Australia after all these years. The Port Douglas community has been very good to us and the shoot is tracking really well. The story is centred around a missing child, which is any parent’s biggest fear, and something we think will resonate with audiences.”
VIC SARIN, Director
Vic Sarin is an Indian-born Canadian/American film director, producer and screenwriter. His work as a cinematographer includes Partition, Margaret’s Museum, Whale Music, Nowhere to Hide, Norman’s Awesome Experience, and Riel. He also directed Partition, Left Behind, and Wind at My Back.
Born in Kashmir, India, Sarin spent his teenage years in Australia where his father was a diplomat. After a short stint as an ABC news cameraman in Australia, he moved to Canada in 1963. He landed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and shot a number of its prestigious dramas during the 1980s. Vic became one of Canada’s top cinematographers on award-winning films such as Bye Bye Blues, Whale Music and Margaret’s Museum.
Kidnapped features actress Claire van der Boom, an award-winning actor who graduated from NIDA in 2005. Claire has appeared in numerous films and television series’ both in Australia and the US. In Australia she has starred in Rush, which she was nominated for the 2009 Silver Logie as “Most Outstanding Actress”; and Sisters of War, for which she won the 2010 “Most Outstanding Actress” Silver Logie, along with Love My Way, East West 101, The Pacific, The Man Who Got Away, City Homicide, and Pulse. In film, she has appeared in The Square, Red Hill, Love Is Now, Broke, and most recently Palm Beach, alongside Bryan Brown and Sam Neill. In the US, Claire has acted in numerous series including Hawaii Five-O, Masters of Sex, Constantine, and Game of Silence. Her American film highlights include Five Flights Up with Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, Chronic, American Exit, and Battlecreek.
“I feel very lucky to be shooting here in Far North Queensland. It’s an idyllic, tropical setting that brings a contrast to the story of my character searching for her kidnapped daughter. I’m having a lot of fun with this cast and excellent crew.”
CLAIRE VAN DER BOOM, Actor
The film also features actor Todd Lasance who starred opposite Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson in another Port Douglas-filmed movie, Fool’s Gold, and as the lead role of Zach in Terminus, and the role of Chad in the indie movie, The Divorce Party. Todd’s Australian lead role credits include the series Crownies, Janet King, Anzac Girls, Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet, Bite Club, and the Underbelly series. Todd started his career as a series lead on Seven’s Home & Away.
THE STEVE JAGGI COMPANY
Based in Brisbane, The Steve Jaggi Company produces commercial feature film and series content for the global market. Recent titles have been acquired by Netflix, Universal Pictures, Disney Channel and MarVista Entertainment. As the global demand for content continues to increase, the company has developed a unique and sustainable business model unrivalled in the Australian film industry that brings together production, post and distribution into a single vertically integrated production pipeline.
