by Mark Weber – Red Deer Express — posted Oct 26, 2016 at 8:12 AM
Seeing one’s successful theatrical production be transformed into a film would be a dream come true for anyone.For native Red Deerian Andrew Kooman, that personal vision is about to be realized with the upcoming release of She Has A Name, the movie based on his remarkably powerful play of the same name.
She Has A Name, which is about a human trafficking incident in Thailand, released its first poster and teaser trailer online to mark the United Nations’ International Day of the Girl earlier this month. The teaser can be viewed at www.shehasanamefilm.com.
“To see what I envisioned come to life on the big screen is tremendous – just amazing, actually,” said Kooman. “We’ve put together a beautiful film with strong performances – I couldn’t be happier. And I think that audiences who know the play will just be blown away with not only the production value, but also the scope of the story. We’re telling things in a way that you just can’t do on the stage.
“With film you can tell a bigger story. She Has A Name on the big screen can get into some of the back story of the characters, and put it into the context of global corruption. So there’s a challenge of how do you stick to the heart and the truth of the original story and yet tell it in a new and fresh way that is faithful to the original? There were some challenges, but it was an exciting, creative challenge to tackle.”
The Unveil Studios’ film stars an international cast of actors including Will Yun Lee (The Wolverine, Hawaii Five-O, Eugenia Yuan (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Sword of Destiny, Memoirs of A Geisha) and Gil Bellows (The Shawshank Redemption, Ally McBeal). The film pairs these actors with up-and-coming stars – Vancouver-based actor Giovanni Mocibob, New York’s Teresa Ting and Singapore’s Vanessa Toh.