{"id":166710,"date":"2025-11-06T21:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/166710\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T21:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:19:08","slug":"simon-rex-stars-in-alex-lius-comedy-thriller-god-bless-you-mr-kopu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/166710\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Rex Stars in Alex Liu’s Comedy Thriller ‘God Bless You, Mr Kopu’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSimon Rex<\/a> (\u201cRed Rocket<\/a>\u201c), Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (\u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d) and Grace Palmer (\u201cAnimal Control\u201d) are set to star in \u201cGod Bless You, Mr Kopu,\u201d the anticipated debut feature from rising Tongan-New Zealand filmmaker Alex Liu<\/a> (\u201cThe Red Room\u201d). <\/p>\n

\n\tLiu penned the screenplay for \u201cGod Bless You, Mr Kopu\u201d which won the MGM\/Black List open script deal in 2022. The project begins principal photography next week in Auckland, New Zealand, and will be introduced to buyers at the AFM. Radiant Films International has boarded the project for worldwide sales, while AC Independent<\/a> represents North American rights. Umbrella Entertainment will handle distribution in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe high-concept dark comedic thriller follows Mafu (Schuster-Koloamatangi), a struggling Tongan immigrant who becomes the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of charismatic American salesman Marco Cass (Rex). What begins as a dream job quickly unravels into a nightmare as Mafu starts to question his mentor\u2019s methods.<\/p>\n

\n\tLiu, whose latest short \u201cThe Red Room\u201d premiered at SXSW Sydney, said \u201chis aim as a filmmaker has always been to expose audiences to Tongan stories in ways we haven\u2019t seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018God Bless You, Mr Kopu\u2019 is a twisted ride with a Tongan protagonist that wears its genre influence on its sleeve,\u201d Liu continued. <\/p>\n

\n\tRex, meanwhile, said \u201cAlex is a talented filmmaker, I love the script, and I can\u2019t wait for global audiences to experience his genius. It\u2019s gonna be crispy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGod Bless You, Mr Kopu\u201d is produced by Roxi Bull for Velvet Moss and Tania Chambers for Feisty Dame Productions. Executive producers are Velvet Moss\u2019 Emma Slade and Timpson Films\u2019 Ant Timpson, alongside Rex, who produces under his recently launched Crispy Productions banner. Truant Pictures\u2019 Toby Nalbandian and Gregory Schmidt, Radiant\u2019s Mimi Steinbauer and A.C. Neel, Umbrella\u2019s Ari Harrison and Jasmin McSweeney, Sandbox\u2019s Grady Habib, and Beatriz Martins also serve as executive producers.<\/p>\n

The film is produced by Velvet Moss and Feisty Dame Productions in association with the New Zealand Film Commission, Screenwest and Lotterywest, and Truant Pictures. Financing comes from Hinterland, Sandbox, the New Zealand Screen Production Rebate, and the Western Australian Post-Production, Digital and Visual Effects Incentive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simon Rex (\u201cRed Rocket\u201c), Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi (\u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d) and Grace Palmer (\u201cAnimal Control\u201d) are set to star in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[95886,95887,18,117,19,17,327,95888,95889],"class_list":{"0":"post-166710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ac-independent","9":"tag-alex-liu","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-red-rocket","16":"tag-simon-rex"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115504844872221557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}