Filmmaker Matthew Campbell has submitted his action-packed thriller, The Wounded, to the social media platform CineCoup, answering their call for indie filmmakers to post trailers of their projects and navigate their way through the selection process. The final five films (voted by fans) will be optioned for development. Among those five is the $1-million prizewinner.
The Wounded is a story of two fathers. The emotional thriller focuses on Naseer (Patrick Sabongui) an average working-class man from Afghanistan who travels to Canada to seek revenge on the Marine (Rob Hayter) responsible for his son’s death. Meanwhile, Patrick (the Marine) is grappling with the effects of war on his mental health while desperately trying to patch things up with his own family upon his return.
“Think of the classic American ‘my family is dead, now I will avenge them’ flick (aka Collateral Damage),” Campbell explains. “But put the twist on a normal Afghani, middle class father who has never willed ill upon anyone, who decides to make the trek to North America to find the man who killed his son believing this will bring him peace.”
Over the last eight years, Campbell has worked on some of Vancouver’s most buzzed-about projects including hit shows like Arrow, Godzilla and the upcoming Disney flick Tomorrowland starring George Clooney. Now the young director is gearing up to helm his very first feature, The Wounded, with the potential help of a $1-million prize. Voting for the top 60 opened April 6.
Campbell has been hard at work on this project for more than a year. He’s personally invested nearly $35,000 into the film and received an amazing amount of help from friends in the industry. Next up is a longer investors’ trailer featuring visual effects from Oscar-winning studio ILM. To vote and share the project, see www.thewoundedmovie.com
Born in Delta, Campbell grew up in Gibsons having two strong passions: film and adventure. He followed through on both interests by going into film and working on action-packed movies and shows. The young filmmaker landed his first industry gig as a production assistant for the sci-fi drama The Last Mimzy.
Campbell then went on to study motion picture production at Capilano University. He made his directorial debut shortly afterwards with the short film To Save One’s Self (2012). The movie was screened at festivals worldwide and nabbed the Royal Reel Award at the Canadian International Film Festival.
