Slovakian-born, French-based filmmaker Viliam Vadnal is readying his first feature-length film, which will be a genre-bending mix of magical realism, dark comedy and film noir, entitled Just Don’t Look Into My Eyes. The movie, formerly known as Weirdo in the Underground, is an adaptation of the novel Virgin in the Underground by Slovakian writer and playwright Viliam Klimáček, who also adapted the story for the film’s script.

Billed as a picture about “weird people living in the same city”, Just Don’t Look Into My Eyes follows three independent characters whose fates will intertwine over the course of the story. The title refers to the main protagonist, Peter Hrobon, who believes his eyes have a magical power. He lives in a richly developed inner world teetering between the real and the magical. In his explanation of the project, the director says that the story will follow Peter from his childhood days, and he will encounter two other characters: an alcoholic “Detective” and a disturbed murderer who is overly fixated on language. The character of the murderer comes from Klimáček’s other book, Nadia Has Time, and the helmer says that despite the movie being an adaptation of a book, the story will nevertheless present some differences.

Vadnal revealed that films by Michel Gondry, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Terry Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro have served as inspiration for him. “I want the movie’s style to be high-flown in order to let the imagination work while also enabling it to remain interesting for an adult audience,” notes the director. The shooting script is finalised, and producer Peter Badač, of BFILM, told Cineuropa that principal photography could even begin as soon as next summer.

Just Don’t Look into My Eyes is being produced by Slovakian outfit BFILM and co-produced by Caïman Productions (France). The project was supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA. The producer visited the EAVE Marketing Workshop and ACE Training Days with the project. Distributor Forum Film is currently tapped to handle the domestic release.