EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based levelFILM has acquired the comedy-drama Hey Viktor!, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and played TIFF this past week for Canadian distribution.
The pic is written and directed by indigenous actor Cody Lightning, who also stars. The plot is a semi-meta narrative, following Lightning, who rose to prominence as Little Viktor in 1998’s Smoke Signals. Recently he has been forced to move to northern Alberta in Western Canada. However, he still believes himself to be famous— even though the only parts he gets these days are porn and fracking commercials. But when Lightning learns his wife and kids are leaving him for a younger, more successful actor, he decides it’s time to quit messing around and make his masterpiece— writing, directing, and starring in Smoke Signals 2: Still Smoking.
A documentary crew follows Cody on his journey around the Indigenous world— re-uniting the original cast, borrowing money from arms dealers, and realizing his vision just in time to realize his vision was bad.
Starring alongside Lightning (Smoke Signals) are Simon Baker (Outlander), Hannah Cheesman (Star Trek: Discovery), Adam Beach (The Power of The Dog), Gary Farmer (Blood Quantum) and Colin Mochrie (Whose Line Is It Anyway?).
Producers on the pic are Samuel Miller, Sara Corry, and Kyle Thomas. The deal was negotiated by Holly Pruner and Lainie Elton of levelFILM and Ryan Kampe of Visit Films on behalf of the producing team. The film is slated for release in spring 2024 and will launch on Crave soon after. The film is still available for sale in the US.
