(Courtesy of Lost Cos production)
As a producer, the key to success is to be an opportunist. Grab any good idea that anybody comes up with. If the cleaner comes up with the ending of your movie, and it’s good, thank her very much and reward her, and then steal it!
Robin de Levita is bringing something fresh and new to the film circuit, and Nerd Alert News had the chance to chat with this creative power. With several Tony Awards on his shelf, this Writer/Director/Producer has now dipped into the film business with “Lost Cos.” This cleverly titled feature film has hit the festival circuit with its showing at the 10th Annual Chelsea Film Festival. Known for his innovative live entertainment productions in New York, has produced six features and more than 90 theatrical productions across nine countries, including 17 Broadway and five West End shows.
It explores the underground world of the New York nightlife and performance art. The best part is that it features Cosplayers and legendary Burlesque performers! Yet Robin is doing more than that. He is actually trying to build a club in New York City to create a place for cosplayers to hang out together. It is a pretty exciting concept.
Plot: Haunted by a tortured childhood and the recent violent loss of her lover, Eni (played by Bulgarian actress Evgeniya Radilova), finds refuge in LOST COS, a mysterious underground club where cosplay and burlesque intertwine and heroes and villains, blur the line between fantasy and reality. But when a cosplayer dressed as “Merman” shows up dead on a New Jersey beach and a mysterious stalker gets up in her DMs, Eni must confront the real traumas that have shaped her life and transform herself into an altogether more formidable force.
“Lost Cos” premieres Sunday, Oct. 16th at the Chelsea International Film Festival. There will be a 1:30 ET screening at the 14th Street Regal Theaters on October 16 at 1:30PM. Information can be found here.
Colleen Bement: Congrats on the premiere of your new film “Lost Cos.” It’s right up our readers’ alley and I love that it features cosplayers and burlesque performers. Let’s start out by asking where did you create the idea for the movie?
Robin de Levita: It sort of developed. My background is in theater so I’ve been surrounded by actors my whole life. I noticed that there’s a relationship between how people transform when they put on a costume. I noticed that when I wear a suit I move differently. I was inspired by that. I also work with performance art and Burlesque and I thought it would be interesting to see what this sub-culture is really like. I wanted to invent some sort of home for them. That’s the club. An underground club where cosplayers and burlesque mingle, and of course, everything goes wrong. There’s a murder and there’s all kinds of drama coming from there.
But I think, also, the story’s about how empowering it is to perform—to take on another persona and how liberating that can be. It relates to a woman that’s traumatized by youth and by tragic events a few years ago. She overcomes her trauma by using fantasy and becoming a part of this community. Slowly she sinks into this world of comic book characters and superheroes.
CB: I love that you chose to use cosplayers and performers in your project. How did you pick the talent?
RDL: I partner with people who really are a part of that community. My co-producers really knew all these people. I knew a few performers. Some of the actors are not really cosplayers, but they become cosplayers, but there are a lot of real ones that we cast. We’re actually trying to build a club in reality, because there’s no real place for cosplayers to hang out together except for these conventions. We have a club in New York and we’ve had three events, and we’re going to have some more and build a home for the cosplay community.
CB: That is absolutely fantastic! What a great concept.
RDL: You can see the trailer on YouTube, and you can get a really good feel for what the movie’s about. It also has animation in it. There are a lot of elements. It’s very colorful and I think your readers will feel at home.
CB: What was the experience like filming in New York City?
RDL: I love New York. I’m actually Dutch. I’m from Amsterdam and I lived most of my in both places. Really, my real job’s a producer. I do Broadway shows and spectacles. That’s why I need to be in New York all of the time. A lot of the movie plays in Brooklyn which I think is how New York looks at its best. The sort of downtown feel. The fire escapes. The sort of edgy world. It’s really dark also. It’s not only fun and games. There are a lot of things happening. There’s a lot of comedy in it too. There are a lot of interesting characters. It was a complex movie to make because it has about 40 characters in it. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done.
CB: Sounds like it. How long did it take to shoot the movie?
RDL: We shot it in four sections. The first three shots were about six days each, and then COVID happened. The funny thing was it allowed time to rethink things in the movie. Then I went back, once we had the COVID regulations, and we finished it. The thing we learn when we do our first feature is the writing takes about 20 percent, the shooting about 10 percent, and everything is editing and post-production.
CB: Let’s switch focus to your amazing career. The list of awards under your creative belt is super impressive. When and how did you get started in show business?
RDL: My grandmother in the Netherlands was an actress. A famous actress. And my father was a television producer of children’s series, and my mother was a journalist. So I grew up in theaters and studios and then when I grew up, I first wanted to pursue a music career, wasn’t a really good musician, so that didn’t work. Quickly I went into television and theater. I was lucky to be in a company that grew pretty fast. It became a production company called Endemol which has television like “Big Brother” and “The Voice.” I was that development, and in the 80s we started to do musicals and for some reason, I ended up right at the place of that development of big-scale musicals.
CB: Creativity never stands still. Do you have another project in the works?
RDL: Right now it’s just trying to get distribution and to get into festivals and doing the marketing. But I love being at festivals. My first festival was fascinating to meet all of these creative people and to be a part of the community. I feel incredibly blessed. My next one is a play with the title “The Pianist” which is a Polanski movie, which we’ll do on Broadway probably next year. I have a company in The Netherlands called StageAround performance system that builds big installations and we’re building those in China and in other places. I’ve written my next movie which is a comedy based on the thing I happen to know a lot about: Musicals. It’s called “M, M, and M” which stands for Musical, Musical, Musical.
CB: As a writer, I’d love to know how you beat writer’s block.
RDL: I don’t think I’m a writer who could write a book or anything, but with the screenplay, you just imagine the characters and hear what they say. I love the combination because you write something and you have an imagination of what the actor’s going to do, and you find they have a completely different idea of how to interpret the material. You either change their minds or, steal what they came up with because it’s better. As a producer, the key to success is to be an opportunist. Grab any good idea that anybody comes up with. If the cleaner comes up with the ending of your movie, and it’s good, thank her very much and reward her, and then steal it!
Nerd Alert News wishes all involved with “Lost Cos” all the success!
Written by Colleen Bement
Hi, I’m Lynn, and I Make.
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