February 21, 2022

Sunil Perkash on Studio vs. Indie Films, and Producing Dystopian Thriller Last Survivors

Film producer Sunil Perkash developed major studios hits like BLAST FROM THE PAST starring Brendon Frasier, Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken, PREMONITION , starring Sandra Bullock, and Disney’s blockbuster hit ENCHANTED, starring Amy Adams, which grossed $340 million, and received multiple oscar and golden globe nominations. Sunil then produced SALT, starring Angelina Jolie and grossing $300 million. He is currently in post production on DISENCHANTED, a sequel to ENCHANTED for Disney Plus starring Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey. His most recent indie film is LAST SURVIVORS, starring Alicia Silverstone, Stephen Moyer and Drew Van Acker. Last Survivors is a dystopian thriller about a father and son living isolated, off the grid, in a frigid wilderness to keep safe from a decaying civilization. But their perfect mini-utopia is disrupted when the father is severely injured and his son must go on a hunt for life-saving medicine, where he encounters a mysterious woman, played by Silverstone.

What you will learn:

  • What it’s like producing films for major film studios vs. indie films.
  • Why his passion is in independent film.
  • How seeing Dances With Wolves during his senior year at Stanford inspired him to drive to Hollywood to try to break into the film industry.
  • The challenges he faced making Last Survivors in the frigid hills of Montana during the pandemic.
  • Why Sunil likes to work with the same actors across multiple films.
  • How SALT, which was originally developed as a vehicle for Tom Cruise, evolved into a film starring Angelina Jolie.
  • How Sunil developed Enchanted “from scratch” and why he is so excited about the rollout of its sequel, Disenchanted, which he shot in Ireland recently.
  • What projects Sunil currently has in the hopper and whether a sequel to Salt may be in the works.

Resources:


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