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TOUCHSTONE - THE JESTER FROM TRANSYLVANIA

By Adrian POPOVICI

NUMBER 11 FILMS - as SALES All rights, World

Thriller - Post-Production 2016

Michael, a Scriptwriter, soon finds out what happens when you pick up a hitchhiker in the middle of the Transylvanian forest. The hitchhiker, Touchstone—a ghost of a Englishman and former court jester—manipulates Michael—a pacifist—to become a cold-blooded serial killer.

- Year of production
- 2016
- Genres
- Thriller, Crime, Black comedy
- Countries
- ROMANIA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 102 mn
- Director(s)
- Adrian POPOVICI
- Writer(s)
- Pascal ILIE VIRGIL
- Cast
- Emmett SCANLAN, Jordan PRENTICE, James FRAIN, Michael IRONSIDE, Franco NERO, Penny DOWNIE, Thamara BARTH
- Producer(s)
- Willi KAMARAD (Dreamfilms), Adrian POPOVICI (Artis Film Romania), Keith WELLS (Number 11 Films)
- Synopsis
- Strange things happen in Transylvania to Michael, a scriptwriter on his way to an isolated lodge in the middle of the Transylvanian mountains to meet the English producers with whom he is to sign a contract for his new film. On the way he meets Touchstone – a jovial Englishman who is in great spirits, despite having just been mugged and abandoned in the middle of the forest and, by all appearances, just about to put a noose around his neck and hang himself – and takes him with him. However, as soon as they reach the mountain lodge, Michael realises that Touchstone has disappeared, as if into thin air, leaving only his footprints in the snow leading to the lodge door. Afterwards Touchstone reappears and Michael makes another amazing discovery: he is the only one who can hear and see Touchstone. Touchstone, who gradually reveals that he is the ghost of a former English court jester who took refuge a few centuries ago at the court of a Transylvanian king, puts Michael in a series of increasingly difficult situations, seemingly with no way out. Michael is forced to defend himself, to fight and to kill to survive. Touchstone even sends Michael six years back in time to the very same lodge, allowing him to meet a young girl with whom he has a one night stand. However, the girl is mercilessly killed by some hunters, whom Michael then goes on to eliminate. He returns to the present again, only for the chain of extreme situations Touchstone places him in to continue. During a very long night, Michael has to fight with all his strength to survive. From being a peaceful, firm believer in non-violence, Michael has turned into a cold-blooded serial killer. However, to his amazement, in the morning he meets again all the people he has killed so far. He is in shock. Touchstone explains how everything was staged and that they only wanted to make him sign the contract for his script for a ridiculously low price. Michael doesn’t believe him. The blood and bullet, knife and axe wounds can’t all be fake. But they are, he’s told, they are all just special effects, which the big studios have been perfecting over the years. However, before he even starts to get used to his new situation, they tell him the true story about what happened, which turns out to be just as shocking and which Michael may still be able to survive... Or not?

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