{"id":69201,"date":"2026-06-01T03:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/69201\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T03:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T03:19:07","slug":"kyle-portbury-prepares-australian-canadian-co-production-featuring-chukwudi-iwuji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/69201\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Portbury prepares Australian-Canadian co-production featuring\u00a0Chukwudi\u00a0Iwuji"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian writer\/director\/producer Kyle Portbury is readying a historical musical-adventure fairytale set in New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p>Due to begin shooting across Australia and Canada early next year, the yet-to-be-named feature follows a young protagonist navigating theft, belonging, and found family in fin-de-si\u00e8cle America.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian-British actor Chukwudi Iwuji (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) is attached to play dual roles in the project, on which Australian Production House Louise Schultz is a producer, and Stuart Lowder is a VFX producer. Further cast and crew announcements are due soon.<\/p>\n<p>Portbury, whose previous credits include directing and producing<a href=\"https:\/\/if.com.au\/kyle-portburys-period-drama-the-hopeful-docks-in-sydney-for-post-production\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> 2024 period drama The Hopeful<\/a>  and co-writing animated feature\u00a0David,\u00a0described the upcoming Australian-Canadian co-production as a family adventure that was a cross between Home Alone and The Goonies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been drawn to stories of belonging, finding where you fit in the world when its not clear how its built for you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis film has that, a young hero navigating the chaos and beauty of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, getting in over their head, and finding family in the most unlikely places. It\u2019s the kind of adventure I wanted to see as a kid and now want my kids to see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added having Iwuji on board was a real statement of intent. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Iwuji] brings a gravity and energy to all of his performances, an actor who inhabits character like a second skin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re building something that feels classic; a big, warm, musical adventure, with real grit and heart.\u00a0Chukwudi\u00a0is someone I want on set for that adventure. Louise and I can\u2019t wait to share more as the pieces come together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schultze, a producer on the Sundance-selected documentary\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/if.com.au\/never-get-busted-teaser\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Never Get Busted<\/a>, also a co-production,\u00a0expected the global collaboration of the upcoming production to become increasingly common.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA movie set in America, shot in Canada and Australia, with global talent, like\u00a0Chukwudi\u00a0Iwuji,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a number of projects like that underway. That\u2019s good for Australian and global talent, and good for storytelling in Australia and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian writer\/director\/producer Kyle Portbury is readying a historical musical-adventure fairytale set in New Orleans. Due to begin shooting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,28788,28789,28790],"class_list":["post-69201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-chukwudi-iwuji","tag-kyle-portbury","tag-louise-schultz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}