Indie writer/director Terence Krey wants his next film to be a horror movie that is more than a horror movie.

Of course, this is the ideal in such matters. As a horror writer myself, I’m always conscious that unless a story is about more than the monster, unless it creates a genuine dialogue between real-life experiences and the fantastical elements contained in the narrative, then you haven’t created anything that will resonate with your audience and have lasting impact. It’s all about resonance. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde tells the now-standard tale of a “mad scientist” who unleashes a monster, sure, but it works so well and has lasted so long because its central elements address issues that are basic to humanity, creating via its fantastical tale a powerful metaphor for the dual nature of Man — the perpetual struggle in humanity and in each of us between creation and destruction, good and evil, compassion and cruelty.

This is the sort of impact that Krey is hoping for.

Of his ambitions, 25-year-old Krey, creator of the critically acclaimed, New York Times-reviewed web series Oh, Inverted World, told Undead Backbrain:

I want to make a horror movie that also isn’t a horror movie. Not a Monster is a movie that could easily be identified as a monster movie, with gore and bloody kills, but at the same time it can be identified as a drama about a girl having to figure her life out. I think finding a common thread between those two plot-lines is challenging, unique, and, if done properly, will really connect with any audience.

My style has always been to use science fiction, fantasy and otherworldly elements to emphasize real-life issues. In this case, a girl who has been through a terrible accident and no longer feels like a person, now has to deal with something that isn’t a person. They are both searching for their identities, all the while dealing with the feeling that they are less than human.

Not A Monster was inspired, Krey says, by the story of Beauty and the Beast and the recent Let the Right One In (Sweden-2008; dir. Tomas Alfredson), where the horror elements offer a way of exploring genuine human emotions.

“Beauty and the Beast” was definitely an inspiration, as I wanted to do a modern retelling of a story just like it. In addition, unconventional, genre-blending horror films were also an inspiration — films such as Shaun of the Dead and Let the Right One In, which is a coming of age/love story, but built around these horrific elements. Earlier films of Tim Burton were also an inspiration, as I want to have a gothic romantic feel to the film to act as a contrast to the blood and gore.

Synopsis:

Chloe is a 26 year old graduate student who is returning to school after a horrifying incident: a car accident has rendered her paraplegic, confining her to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Along with her father Stan and her boyfriend Scott, Chloe begins the difficult task of reentering her life newly disabled. Unfortunately, on the day she returns her campus is turned upside down, as news spreads of two students being attacked by some kind of creature in the woods.

As animal carcasses start showing up and school personnel go missing, Chloe soon discovers the truth face to face: a monster, half man, half animal, with a clawed arm and a pair of broken antlers, is living in the woods outside the school. It attacks Chloe, scratching her leg and throwing her to the ground before running off. As Chloe composes herself, she discovers something extraordinary: the scratch on her leg actually hurts. She feels it.

And so Chloe descends into the mystery that is The Monster, all the while secretly needing to feel again what she felt that night, something that only the murderous Monster can do. Is feeling normal again worth risking her life? As the entire town, and the people close to her, become involved in the hunt for The Monster, Chloe must figure out who she wants to be, as well as who the real monsters are.

Right now Not A Monster is in the pre-production phase. Recently, Krey shot a trailer for fundraising purposes, which he and his crew plan to go about through crowd-sourcing such as Kickstarter as well as finding independent investors. They hope to launch the full trailer sometime in the next month or so, though you can check out a teaser below.

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Krey says the film will be shot independently in the New York area, using the current “inexpensive-yet-impressive technology” of DSLR filmmaking. Krey himself harkens from from Long Island, New York.

In addition, the distribution model of Not a Monster will be just as independent as the production of the film itself. Initially, Not a Monster will be self-distributed as a digital HD download through our website, notamonsterfilm.com. For less than the price of a movie ticket, viewers will be able to watch Not A Monster on their computer, phone, tablet, or video game system.  This model will blend the world of new and old media by making a full-length feature film available through the Internet straight from the creators to the audience.

Not a Monster stars Elysia Segal as Chloe (pictured below), Rob Hinderliter (Scott), Rich Vience as Hudson (second image below), Jacob A. Ware (Aleister), and Alexander Longo (The Monster). Makeup/Effects are by Robert Doyle. Director of Photography is Daniel Fox and the film is being produced by Terence Krey, Daniel Fox, and Jacob Cohen. It was written and will be directed by Krey himself.

“Not a Monster will be a natural addition to the genre-blending horror films that have become so popular of late, such as Shaun of the Dead and Let the Right One In,” Krey commented. “If the online release turns some heads (or if someone sees its potential before that), we are absolutely interested in exploring other distribution channels, whether theatrical, home video, or cable.”

Not a Monster is scheduled for shooting in  the US Summer 2012.

• Source: Terence Krey via Avery Guerra. Official website; Facebook page. Written by Robert Hood.

In fact, in refers to an undertaking of filmmaker Joseph Nanni — the production of, in the first instance, a short teaser film that involves Shub-Niggurath, or “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young”, who is a little-mentioned deity from the Cthulhu Mythos of New England horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft. The second part of the project is more ambitious: to make of full-length version of the teaser.

So what is Shub-Niggurath?

In the Backbrain article A Lovecraftian Invasion 1: Dirt Dauber, we drew attention to a film that also references that particular deity, though in a quite different way. Nevertheless it would be worth your while to go and read the article, because it includes information on Shub-Niggurath and speculations relating to her, and I don’t intend to repeat it all here. So, off you go! We’ll still be here when you get back.

The following image is a visualisation of Shub-Niggurath by “verreaux“. It attempts to capture both the Satanic “black goat” aspect of the name and the vaguer descriptions of Lovecraft’s appropriation of the epithet.

Writer/director Joseph Nanni’s “Black Goat” takes a similar approach to the depiction of Shub-Niggurath. The atmospheric landscape, with its ghostly tree-lines and the ritualistic elements are all designed to create the sort of dread that is a characteristic quality of Lovecraft’s work.

Synopsis:

Jacques Cowan is what the French call “a runner of the woods.” He may be a foreigner in the new world but Jacques quickly learned the ways of the native people, their language, their routes, and their skills. But he didn’t leave his life in another land for adventure, freedom, and wealth — he had much more in mind than trading pelts and cheating death. Jacques had listened intently to the stories that had crossed the ocean, extraordinary tales of mystical creatures and unknown forces. Black Goat finds Jacques mid-hunt, as he closes in on what others thought was a legend. What he doesn’t realize is that the legend is on a hunt of its own.

Check out the teaser/short film for yourself:

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Some Production Shots:

Adam Wilson as Jacques

Attacked by “green-screen” tentacles!

Next step is the full-on production of the feature-length film (which will, one assumes, involve a LOT more sloshing around in the snowbound landscape). Nanni explained: “We’re currently in development and have a rather major distributor working with us. We haven’t talked cast yet, although Adam Wilson (Manson, Ending The Eternal) is locked in to play the lead. Production design has started, but I still may reach out to some Lovecraft luminaries for concept design.”

One such “luminary” is already on board. Lovecraft artist Dave Carson will be (as Nanni puts it) “helping us realize some Elder God nastiness for the upcoming feature Black Goat.” Check out Carson’s work here.

Below is one of his earlier renditions of Shub-Niggurath:

Nanni also noted that Guillermo del Toro called the trailer “impeccable” and said, “I love Black Goat. I cannot say it enough.”

Anyway, going on the quality of the “teaser” short, a feature-length version of The Black Goat is something to look forward to. It might not be a replacement for Del Toro’s abandoned multi-million-dollar At the Mountains of Madness, but it may very well be a more-than-decent piece of Lovecraftian cinema.

• Source: Joseph Nanni via Avery Guerra; Official blog; website; IMDb entry.
• Previous “Lovecraft Invasion” articles.

Effects:

First, the never-before-seen FX test videos, in which the insects, in their smaller forms, get on the move en masse:

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Are these scenes making you itch yet?

Behind the Scenes Picture Gallery:

Here we have a series of shots taken during production, including location referencing, some green-screen elements, on-set images and more!

Full Gallery:

• Previous: Coming Soon: The Emergence Premieres Here!
• Next: The official premiere of The Emergence, here on Undead Backbrain on 1 December!

Source: Jeff LeBlanc via Avery. Written by Robert Hood

The series is described thus by Davis: “MORAV: Missions plunges you in to the middle of World War III with a giant robot crew and an embedded news correspondent as they fight for survival in a terrifying robotic war.  MORAV examines the human condition under the most extreme life and death situations.”

If that sounds like your cup-of-tea (or coffee or motor oil or whatever beverage you prefer), go to the Kickstarter site and pledge them some money. There’s plenty of information there to show you what you’re backing. Frankly, it looks superb.

Davis has already achieved an enormous amount, in terms of background development and franchise building, having completed an excellent graphic novel set in a world caught up in a massive near-future war, with action, drama and giant robots as well as developing many of the robotic stars. Take a look at this appeal video to get an idea of the quality he is aiming for.

Go read about it — and put your money where your enthusiasm is. You’ve got about 8 hours from… now!

More details about MORAV, the franchise, on Robot War Espresso. I’ve been meaning to do a piece on the excellent graphic novel, which I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed. Must get to that. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: MORAV: Missions succeeded in obtaining the funds targeted through KickStarter. Congratulations to Fon Davis and crew! Looks like the giant robot wars really begin now!

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Undead Backbrain asked Wright how it came about.

The trailer was made during my final year in university as part of my dissertation on using practical special effects, I’ve grown up on a healthy diet of old B-movies and the Godzilla movies and so wanted to try my hand at doing a kaiju movie. I was determined to make a really old-school man-in-a-suit monster movie that captured the feeling of those classic movies.

I spent around a year on making the trailer amongst other projects, from getting concept art done [see above], building the props and making the costume from scratch to finally shooting it in small sections over two weeks either in the studio working with a green screen or out on the university sports field with a small crew of no more then four other people.

The Kanigar costume was made from cardboard, papiermâché and fabric, just building it on the dining-room table and having help from my mum putting the suit together, just a very low tech way of making the costume, for example the eyes are made from Easter egg packaging with lights inside.

We asked if there would ever be a proper feature version of Kanigar to go with the trailer?

I still have all the costumes, props and miniatures but am still trying to get my foot in the door of the UK film industry. If given the opportunity and resources, however, I would definitely jump at the chance to make a feature version.

Maybe one day soon Wright’s “little tribute to those old monster movies” will become a bigger tribute!

For more production images, see the Gallery below.

• Source: Bevin Wright via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.

Gallery:

He features in the theoretical film Earwigs, brainchild of filmmaker Bruce LeGrow. At the moment Earwigs exists only as a trailer, made initially for a faux-trailer contest, but — as is increasingly common practice, it seems — its director, LeGrow, has ambitions to expand the project into a feature-length film. It would, obviously, be a retro Sci-Fi homage film in the vein of The Lost Skeleton of Cabavra (US-2001; dir. Larry Blamire), in this case referencing the giant-bug genre that hit its peak in 1954 with Them! (US-1954; dir. Gordon Douglas) — the Earwigs poster above not accidentally borrowing its central image from the famous poster for that film.

From the trailer itself and the speculative synopsis LeGrow provided, however, the film will give equal attention to assorted “unstable scientist” flicks dating from the Time of The Drive-In Double Feature — “a twisted world where science and love collide”.

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Synopsis:

Dr Rutherford’s home life is in shambles. His wife is an abusive gossip who spends most of her time complaining about her husband on the phone. Amidst his current studies for the military, the doctor has been working overtime to develop a serum that would alter the human brain. The serum is intended to unleash the brain’s full potential for empathy and compassion. After a few failed attempts of using the serum on his wife, and selling it as a “love potion” to local hoodlums, the doctor stumbles upon the missing ingredient in his own basement laboratory. Earwigs!

Earwigs are the great mothers of the solitary insect world. Earwigs care for their young well after the second molt! Through a series of radical experiments, the doctor manages to extract the “caring gene” from the brain of an earwig. He carefully adds it to his powerful serum.

Inevitably a domestic dispute ends with Dr Rutherford kicked out of his own house. Now residing in the military laboratory, the doctor turns his sights to his sexy lab assistant Diana. He propositions that they each drink his serum and start a new loving life together. Diana declines and flees the scene. In a moment of desperation the doctor takes the serum and is strangely mutated into an earwig.

Dr Rutherford, now more earwig than man, lurks throughout the city. He has a sinister motive to capture women and create his own “perfect” family. After abducting Diana from a car at lover’s lane, the giant earwig creates an evil sanctuary in an abandoned barn on the edge of town. From here he uses his psychic powers to summon and command a vast horde of earwigs.

The earwigs crawl inside their victims, effectively turning them into mindless slaves of the earwig’s evil will. Fear and suspicion reign supreme amidst the plethora of strange occurrences around town. More young women are disappearing, and a manhunt begins for Dr Rutherford. Rumors abound that the recent phenomenon is part of an elaborate Communist attack on freedom. The military suspects Dr Rutherford is involved in this red plot, and begins an investigation. Meanwhile, Private Buck begins his frantic search to find and save his young love, Diana.

The town is in an uproar. It’s becoming impossible to determine who is under the earwig’s command. Greasers and nerds unite after a horrific incident at the sock-hop, and Private Buck finally uncovers the location of the giant earwig’s lair. The earwig threat is growing exponentially. A series of incidents finally prompts the army into action. Heavy artillery moves throughout the countryside. A massive stand-off occurs once the army descends upon the earwig’s lair. Will mankind triumph over the earwig’s lust for power? (source: Bruce LeGrow)

As well as expounding on the location shoots he undertook to film the Earwigs trailer, director Bruce LeGrow (as pictured above) explained to the Backbrain the inspiration behind making Earwigs:

Earwigs was one of those ideas that seemingly came out of nowhere. There was a call to create a fake horror/ sci-fi trailer to screen at the local Silver Wave film festival. I had just moved out of an earwig-infested house, so I already had earwigs on the brain! It felt natural to make a monster movie about earwigs in a 50s sci-fi context. Earwigs seem to be the only bugs that didn’t have their own creature feature in those days. I am a big fan of the ’50s sci-fi film — “Creature from the Black Lagoon”, “Them”, and “Tarantula” in particular.

Being a non-CGI effort (in keeping with its 1950s inspiration), Earwigs required hands-on monster-makers — not to mention a full-size giant earwig. LeGrow explained the process:

While we were shooting I had tasked a few talented folks to work on some specific props: the “earwig helmet” for when the doctor becomes the half-man-half-earwig, and the “giant earwig” for the final scene in the farmland lair. The “earwig helmet” (pictured below) is made entirely out of cardboard. It consists of many molded layers of cardboard that are stacked on top of one another to create the contours of an earwig’s face. It is a fun prop to wear around!

The giant earwig went though a few mutations to end up as “hilariously scary” as it did. There was a team of people working on the head, which is ultimately a broken BBQ with copper tubing as antennas. The BBQ was covered in paper-maché and painted black. The completed head was then mounted on a 2×4, which was in turn attached to a chicken-wire frame covered in garbage bags! Andrew Long hid behind the mighty beast to operate the arms and give the evil earwig some creepy movement.

Getting the ’50s period look?

This project could not have been made without the generous help and equipment from the New Brunswick Film Co-op. Luckily I was able to get my hands on some 16mm film, and within a week of the initial idea, shooting began. Shooting on 16mm film with an aaton camera added to the ’50s aesthetic, and provided some great experience.

Wardrobe, hair and make-up were major undertakings. Under the supervision of 1950s experts Jenn Chaisson and Jody Dickinson, I had rented a plethora of period-specific wardrobe from Theater New Brunswick. This combined with the help from talented hair and make-up artists Christine LeBlanc, and Terri Richards (who I always called at the last minute!… Sorry!), made the ’50s came alive!

In the first day of shooting we completed all of the mad scientist lab scenes. These were shot in an operational entomology lab with the help of lighting wizard Chris Giles. For the lover’s lane scene I was lucky enough to wrangle a ’54 Ford. A beautiful setting for an earwig abduction! The tank scenes were shot at a local tank monument, and many of the final scenes in the trailer were shot at a local farm. The farm house mysteriously burned down in the middle of production. It was a shame to lose such a wonderful location to vandals.

Once Earwigs was in the can, I shipped it off and focused on the sound edit. I was fortunate to be able to work with Lex Gigeroff (of LEXX fame), who was a great help in the pre-production stage, and who delivered an energized performance as the narrator for Earwigs. At the helm of the sound edit was my good friend Gregg O’Donnell. We really wanted the audio to feel like a true 1950s movie. The challenge was that the movie had to be a modern take on this style, and everything needed to be decipherable. With a budget of zero dollars, and no analog equipment, the atmosphere was created using digital effects such as generated turntable noise.

The score was written and produced within two weeks, and production for the ’50s style do-wop song “My Baby Left Me for an Earwig”, took a full week on top of that. Gregg wrote, mixed, and produced the music for “My Baby Left Me for an Earwig”, with no live instruments other than vocals. I wrote the lyrics and sang lead vocals, while Gregg supplied the backing harmonies.  This was a fun piece to make, and hopefully it will bring some attention to this film!

Click here to listen to The Hot Rod Daddy Oh’s singing the theme song “My Baby Left Me For an Earwig”.

Is there more? Or will there be?

Unfortunately I had to cut some scenes to make a streamlined two-minute trailer. These scenes include some earwig psychic power, a government counsel meeting, another mad scientist scene, and a night at the theater. Logistically the theater scene was the most difficult to pull off. A great number of great women spent a lot of time to prepare for the screen. In the end the scene turned out great, but had to be cut for time purposes. These deleted scenes are still intact in the extended cut of Earwigs that is currently in its festival run. For now only the 2 minute version is posted online.

Earwigs is still in its festival run, having already screened at the International Horror and Sci-fi festival in Phoenix, and at the Famous Monsters festival in Beverly Hills. On April 1st Earwigs was named one of the top five trailers in the “Hobo With a Shotgun” fake trailer contest. Earwigs was also screened at the 2011 Phoenix Comicon on May 27th.  The trailer is currently in the International Movie Trailer Festival and needs votes! (You can find the trailer and vote for it @ http://www.internationalmovietrailerfestival.com/imtf/index.php/trailer-2011/ )

I would love to make Earwigs into a feature-length film. I am currently brainstorming ideas and writing a treatment. The trailer leaves things fairly wide open for a feature. This is good, but it creates a challenge on how to tell the story. I want Earwigs to be fun within its genre, rather than being campy and poking fun at it. I could write a script that could be made with a shoe-string budget, but I am currently going for the grand approach!

More images from Earwigs are available in the Gallery.

Source: Bruce LeGrow via Avery Guerra; Facebook page.

Man of the clawth. Sometimes the prayers become the prey.

Actually it’s a faux trailer for a film that doesn’t exist called, evocatively, The VelociPastor, directed by Brendan Steere. The question the director is asking is: do you want to see a proper feature-length version? Now’s your chance. You can decide!

Synopsis:

A priest loses his parents, and in his hour of darkness begins to question his faith. Of course, during this dark period he is also scratched by an ancient piece of ember, allowing him to transform into a dinosaur and give in to his baser urges. Soon he discovers that indulging in these murderous desires might not be all evil. Sometimes, to make things right, people have to die. Sometimes a lot of people. Enter the man of the clawth. How long has it been since your last confession?

Production comments from the director:

We actually f**ked the film up manually. I mean, there are some digital scratches in there, but 85% of that degradation is the real thing. We shot the film (16mm Kodak’s Vision3 500T stock), and before exposure, I took it into my bathroom, which is the only room in my apartment with no windows, so it was basically a darkroom. Once inside, I proceeded to take the film and scratch it over everything in the room, trying to make it literally look like it had been dragged through a parking lot. For extra measure, we then sealed the film back up and baked it in an oven at 200 degrees for ten minutes, which gave it an extra washed-out and faded look. All of this can be achieved in After Effects of course, but honestly, where’s the fun in that?

Another neat thing: the suit had actually been hanging around in my garage for three years, left over from an old feature film I directed in my high school days. The school bought the suit (paid for it in full — and it was a couple of thousand dollars), but then rejected the script for the film we were gonna shoot on the grounds that it was ‘too violent’. F**k that, whatever. The point is, they let me keep the suit. I’m honestly not sure they remembered they bought it. So technically that amazing dinosaur costume was commissioned with American tax dollars, and honestly, I can’t think of anything more badass than a ‘dinosaur costume’ tax.

On Cast and Crew:

As for the crew, it was a smattering of my friends here at film school, all of whom are amazing and have their own shit. All of them can be found linked from Vimeo.

The cast consisted mainly of friends and family, with the notable exception being Matt Ziegel — the VelociPastor himself — who is a wonderful actor I’ve got some projects coming up with soon. Matt operates out of Manhattan, as I do.

On Brendan Steere:

I’ve been writing/directing/editing films for nearly half my life. At nineteen, I’ve directed three feature films and countless shorts about any damn subject imaginable, though horror films are definitely my preferred genre. I’m currently attending SVA in Downtown Manhattan for Directing. I’m churning little things out all the time while working on larger projects like the VelociPastor feature (which is currently being written –  we’ll see when we get to that one. Maybe as early as this summer). I update videos, blog, etc. here and people can follow me on Twitter.

On the future of The VelociPaster:

I’ve sent this trailer out to some film fests, hoping one will pick it up. If there’s a positive enough reaction, the feature will get underway.

So, if you want Brendan to make a film out of this exercise in cinematic tongue-in-cheekiness, leave a comment either at the end of this article or on YouTube. He assures us it will make a difference.

• Brendan Steere via Avery; Poster illustrated by Wyeth Yates

Gallery:

You don’t? How could you forget Norway’s first cinematic giant monster, released upon the world in the short teaser Giant Egg Attack! Go to this Undead Backbrain article right now to whet your appetite.

Exciting news today from co-creator Geir Are Mo that they’ve been busy cooking up the next course of the Giant Egg Attack! saga. It’s well and truly in production and will hit the internet as soon as life stops interfering with his attempts to crack off the last fragments of the shell. Meanwhile he’s sent us some screenshots that give spectacular indication of what’s on the menu. Click to see the pics full size.

It Rises!

It Rampages!

It Trashes the City!

And all before breakfast!

Stay tuned! And keep the water boiling!

• Source: Geir Are Mo via Avery. Text by Robert Hood.

Don’t get too excited though, as he will only be there as an “Easter Egg”, hidden in the background of one scene — a sort of tribute to the fans. Iron Man 2′s lead conceptual artist, Adi Granov, is reported as saying:

This was my design for Fin Fang Foom for the Iron Man Viva Las Vegas book I was doing with Jon Favreau. But this image in particular was done for the IM movie and used as a billboard in one of the scenes where Iron Man flies past it. It’s very quick, but Jon wanted to have a kind of a cool easter egg in there. (SuperRobotMayhem)

Though he began life in a solo story in Strange Tales, Foom also appeared in the Iron Man, Thor and Fantastic Four storylines. As all these are currently existing or in-development film franchises, perhaps the Great Dragon will pop-up on-screen as a character yet, especially as Marvel is reportedly leading up to a mammoth mash-up project featuring the Avengers.

Fin Fang Foom featured in a two-part Undead Backbrain special in April 2008 (“He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains”) and in fact the Backbrain managed to interview him in a now-demolished restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown. You should check it out, if you haven’t come across it before.

Anyway, curious about this recent news, I tried getting hold of Foom using an archaic landline number his agent sent me after the interview appeared back in 2008, and to my surprise  I got through. Below is a transcript of our conversation.

Undead Backbrain: Is that you, your Royal Foomness?

Foom: Who else would it be, you pathetic creature? Eragon?

Backbrain: You know Eragon?

Foom: I ate Eragon over a year ago. All those artificial ingredients gave me indigestion for a week. What d’you want, fool? You disturbed my perfectly enjoyable re-enactment of the destruction of New York…. in New York.

Backbrain: There’s a rumour going around that you might be going to appear in a future Marvel Superhero movie — Iron Man 3 perhaps. Or the Thor movie? Is it true?

Foom: It might be. If I told you I’d have to come ’round and tear your guts out to feed to my starving minions.

Backbrain: The design work for your background cameo in Iron Man 2 has you looking very metallic. What’s the story there?

Foom: Background cameo? What are you talking about?

Backbrain: Apparently Iron Man does a fly-by of a billboard that has your likeness on it.

Foom: Rot and damnable libel. Who told you this?

Backbrain: It came from a guy named Adi Granov. He worked on the Iron Man 2 film.

Foom: Hmmm. If it’s true, it’s a copyright infringement. I have to go.

Backbrain: Go? But –

Foom: I intend to speak to my lawyer.

Backbrain: And then what?

Foom: I’m going to tread on the fool. Then I’m going to pay a visit to a certain conceptual artist. Purely a social call, I assure you.

Backbrain: Oh. Listen, don’t tell him you were speaking to me. Okay.

Foom: Where did you say you were ringing from? I’d like to chat with you face-to-face about your role in propagating this slander.

Backbrain: Um, a few kilometres south of the North Pole. Gotta go now.

Foom: [Indecipherable cursing]

I hope he doesn’t read this blog….

• Source: via Avery. Really, Mr Foom, it’s Avery’s fault, not mine. I had nothing to do with it. I was an innocent victim.

First World (US-2007; dir. Adam Starr) is a both a short scifi film and an on-going project that aims to result in a full-length feature. I first interviewed writer and producer Mark Lund back in 2007, when I was programming the short version into the film festival stream of Conflux 2007. He explained then:

The short is a 25-min “sampling” of what is more than likely going to be a two-hour-and-30-minute production. The story is vast and in-depth and while there exists a good amount of special effects to really bring the viewer in, the focus is on the story through the characters that start off in a seemingly calm but troubled world and ends in the establishment of a new world order. Presently only a 2-minute trailer and the 25-minute short exist. My goal is to create interest in the premise with the short and introduce the project to producers and investors so that the script could be developed through to production of the long version. (Read the full interview here).

The short film screened well, its alternative history vision of the Space Race and speculative political background offering a refreshingly different approach to the creation of a scifi blockbuster, and I’ve been wondering how the larger project is going. Just the other day Mark Lund sent me some newly created conceptual artwork — the design of the S.S. Constitution, which you can see below — and I took the opportunity to get some more information about the ongoing production from him. The description of the images he provided gives you a pretty good idea of the film’s underlying narrative.

The S.S. Constitution (click on the images to get the full effect):

The S.S. Constitution plays a pivotal role in the overall story of First World. We learn early that this second generation space shuttle has been under development since the Reagan Administration. Although President Reagan officially canceled its development, a substantial covert military faction in cooperation with civilian contractors, took over development. This covert group has been growing since they first learned of this advanced civilization from an Arctran crash in 1947 and confirmation with the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969. The true facts of each of these events, kept under wraps from the world population.

When the Chinese announce they are going to the Moon in 2018, four years ahead of schedule, the completed, albeit untested, S.S. Constitution is immediately launched from Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and lands at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This launch causes an immediate public relations nightmare for NASA and a major distraction for U.S. President Robert Anderson who just learned from Prime Minister Allison Colby of Great Britain that Apollo 11 discovered a domed installation on the Moon and whose inhabitants have been part of our world society since 3003 BCE. When Anderson’s predecessor President Helen Colton secured $200 billion to complete NASA’s Orion Program, those funds were largely diverted to finish this covert shuttle program.

Specifications of the S.S. Constitution remain murky to both Anderson’s Administration and the inhabitants of the Moon installation until the shuttle launches via remote operation from sources unknown. With the demonstrated firepower of an F-22 Raptor, the ability to carry and deploy nuclear ordnances like that of a B-2 bomber along with a nuclear fusion-pulse rocket drive, the S.S. Constitution is not a vehicle of peace and exploration, but a weapon of mass destruction that can be deployed anywhere on Earth and space.

When the S.S. Constitution breaks Earth orbit for the Moon, a decision is made to save humanity and its origins. But that decision will violate the very Decalogue of Commandments they have been set forth on Earth and our known way of life.

Q & A with Mark Lund:

Who created the concept designs for the S.S. Constitution and what is that person role in the production?

The images were created by artist Peggy Chung. I first saw her wonderful work on www.io9.com and contacted her to see if she would be interested in developing some concept art for First World. It has been great working with her on this project. As I mentioned to her during our first introductions, my goal with this concept art is to continue developing interest in First World to work toward making the feature-length version. We have the short and we have the trailer. But it was time for some updating and Peggy is the right artist at the right time. Her work can be viewed at www.PegChung.com. The next piece she is doing will be a “painting” of Lunaria, the domed installation on the Moon first discovered by Apollo 11 in 1969.

How about an update on where the production stands now and the current game-plan?

First World was VERY close to receiving feature production funding from producers in China, New York and Germany. Then the global recession hit and projects literally came to standstill. The producers in Germany were hoping to get First World on their latest slate of films, but was still having difficulty in closing financing on their previous slate. So it was a set of circumstances sadly not in our control and not reflective of the project itself. But there has been some very substantial progress since First World screened in Australia at Conflux in 2007. The screenplay has received some wonderful nominations Finalist, California Independent Film Festival (2007), Top 10, Science Fiction, The Movie Deal (2008) and I just learned that First World made the Top 10 at the recently concluded Fantastic Planet Sydney International Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival in Australia. In 2009, First World was released to DVD by IndieFlix, which released it to Hulu. So distribution and awareness continues. At present, there are five producers reviewing the project for possible production. So hopefully while we see our respective economies recover (mostly here in the United States), projects such as First World will be moved to the front of some of these production slates.

Any other interesting news?

Last year I wrote a prequel to First World titled First World Covenant that is designed as a limited run web series introducing a couple more characters — in particular, the bank of Shinar International, which is operated by one of the Disciples and is covertly the largest banking institution in the world, which quietly regulates the financial system behind the scenes to keep things in relative order.

I am also nearly completed with the sequel to First World titled First World Final Solution. In the sequel, the secret kept from humanity since Apollo 11 and the last three thousand years has revealed itself full circle. Governments are falling apart, the world population is doing nothing but questioning and revolting, the military in most developed “First World” nations are unstable. But through this all, U.S. President Hadrian, who succeeded President Anderson in a coupe, means to rid the world of these “people” once and for all. To do so means to expand the high altitude nuclear tests of the 1950s — for these people brought something with them when they arrived on Earth in the year 3003 BC. But Cedric, Elisabeth and the rest of the Disciples will now have to employ the very God-like and fearful powers that are only read about in scripture to stop Hadrian and to prevent a repeat of what happened on their homeworld 15,000 years earlier — a holocaust of fear.

Finally, there is a sci-fi fan group that is interested in making an audio presentation of First World. They are largely Space 1999 fans (one of my personal favorite series) but have really enjoyed the First World story and want to participate in its development.

• Source: Mark Lund
• Official website
• IMDb entry
• Mark Lund’s website