Light of Dead Stars Film Project

Ultra-low bud­get fea­ture to be shot in UK, seeks the fol­low­ing (unpaid, expens­es only): 

  • One expe­ri­enced actor to play male lead, oth­er­world­ly, sex­u­al­ly-mag­net­ic, odd­ball, aged 25–35.
  • Sec­ond male lead, aged 40–60, griz­zled, world-weary cop on verge of breakdown.
  • Female lead, aged 40–55, aloof, mys­te­ri­ous, attrac­tive foren­sic psy­chol­o­gist with shad­owy connections

What’s it about?

A false­ly-awak­ened spir­i­tu­al seek­er winds up as an acci­den­tal ser­i­al mur­der­er when every woman he touch­es dies of unknown caus­es. He is hunt­ed by a police detec­tive whose grasp on real­i­ty slow­ly comes unrav­elled in the face of inex­plic­a­ble evidence. 

Blade Run­ner meets Blue Vel­vet: Throw Don­nie Darko, The Ten­ant, Man Bites Dog, I Heart Huck­abees, The Lob­ster, & ear­ly Hal Hart­ley & Atom Egoy­an into Seth Brundle’s tele­pod, sprin­kle with some Cor­mac McCarthy, and you may get some idea of what to expect.

This fea­ture-length script is in nine chap­ters. First chap­ter here (PDF).
This project is cur­rent­ly in pre-pro­duc­tion with Land Made Films. The plan is to assem­ble cast and crew and fund­ing (of rough­ly £1500) to film the first chap­ter, plus key shots and micro-scenes (as cutaway/flashbacks) as a rough­ly 20-minute proof of con­cept short, with which to raise funds for the full fea­ture (actors will then be paid). 
The most like­ly loca­tion for the first shoot (3–5 days) will be Northamp­ton, around March 2024. 
Be advised: Land-Made Films is a covid-non-con­form­ing, mRNA-wary, and NRW (Not Remote­ly Woke) com­pa­ny for intre­pid souls will­ing to swim against the ris­ing tide of total­i­tar­i­an­ism, and risk all for an authen­tic cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty experience.

SYNOPSIS:

In an unspec­i­fied near-future city, a dis­en­chant­ed and jad­ed cop, Gabriel Link, is on the hunt for a killer. Young women are dying, caus­es unknown.

Until recent­ly, Jed Frost was just anoth­er slack­er, liv­ing aim­less­ly with his girl­friend and cat. But he has under­gone an awak­en­ing and is able to hear people’s thoughts and see the future laid out before him, as a series of alter­nat­ing inevitabil­i­ties. He has become a “resid­ual image” of him­self, a liv­ing embod­i­ment of non-dual con­scious­ness. All he sees is “the light of dead stars,” the echoes of an exis­tence long gone.

Jed is eager to test out his new state of being and his bizarre behav­iour gets him beat­en up and arrest­ed, since he is now indif­fer­ent to per­son­al dan­ger. All that remains of Jed that is rec­og­niz­ably human is a strong bio­log­i­cal urge for sex. His new state of indif­fer­ence, com­bined with the strange alien ener­gy that moves through him, gives him pow­ers of seduc­tion that verge on the super­nat­ur­al. Women both high and low can­not resist him. As Jed’s sex­u­al trysts mount, so do the bod­ies. When Jed meets Illiana, a young woman trapped with her abu­sive par­ents, his state of enlight­ened indif­fer­ence begins to crum­ble, and he is moved to try to save her.

Link’s asso­ciates mean­while think he is on a wild goose chase. “Extra-con­sen­su­al” researcher and police psy­chol­o­gist, and Link’s ex-lover, Eve­lyn Palmer is con­cerned about Link’s men­tal health, but also curi­ous about the case. As the anom­alies mul­ti­ply, in a series of inter­ro­ga­tions with the sus­pect, Link’s sense of real­i­ty starts to unravel. 

For all inquiries, con­tact: landmadefilms[at]proton.me