It's quite unusual for me to get this excited about a project that is still in the pre-production phase but, from time to time, I simply must make an exception. Hardkor 44 is one of those times. The feature length debut from Polish production house Platige Image - best known for their stellar CGI animation work - and director Tomek Bagiński, Hardkor 44 is a scifi re-imagining of the events of the Warsaw uprising in WWII, the actual history of the event re-cast as a sort of steampunk epic. Of the two pieces of concept art released thus far - both of them incredibly atmospheric - only one hinted at how far the scifi element would be pushed but Polish website Opium have today sent details of a new press conference for the project along with a block of additional pieces of concept art in which it becomes very, very clear that this is going all out - the designs featuring both full-on robot warriors and cyborg creations. If Platige comes anywhere close to their normal standards of quality this is going to be absolutely stunning.

Our thanks to Opium also for the following translation of the official synopsis:

The action will take place at the end of 1944. The Germans direct to Warsaw a squad led by oberführer SS Wagner, infamous for his cruelty and deformed face. He is supposed to wipe the capitol of Poland off the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, on the Polish side of the barricade there a mysterious man called Arnold appears. He is a handsome soldier who disappeared without a trace in 1939. He assembles a group of insurgents from slyboots from Praga and Wola (districts of Warsaw). Together with a few criminals, collaborants and other types of suspicious characters Arnold will try to get the spoil of war that Wagner accumulated.

In Warsaw, however, a surprise awaits our heroes. Wagner has an ace up his sleeve - a squad of cyborgs built from metal and organs of the worst recidivists found in prisons and concentration camps by
psychopathic Nazi scientists. Only Arnold's team will be able to oppose such power and at the same time they will discover the truth about themselves.

Hardkor 44 will release in 2012. That's a long wait, but it should be worth it.