Source: Katherine Herrera / Urban Archipelago Films, Inc
Lightning Entertainment has picked up Urban Archipelago Films' production of Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis for domestic distribution. The feature film based on a short story by the
internationally acclaimed author will premiere on November 17, 2009, via On Demand through Time Warner, Charter, and Bright House digital cable providers. The film will be available in more than 50 million homes in the U.S. Additional dates for multiple other providers including Comcast and digital satellite services will be announced shortly.
The beloved author of such classics as The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, who has been consulted in every aspect of the film’s production, says: "Chrysalis started to develop in my life more than forty years ago. I wrote ten different versions of the story and tried, unsuccessfully, to sell it to various magazines. I finally wrote one more version and sold it to "Amazing Stories." To have it come off the page and come alive is a real triumph. [Producer] Roger Lay, Jr. has done a first-class, A-1 job."
Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis has also been picked up for international distribution by Arsenal Pictures and will begin airing worldwide in the fall. Some of the initial international territories include Russia and Japan, two of the largest non-U.S. markets for Bradbury's work. More territories and release dates will continue to be announced in the coming months at:
www.chrysalismovie.net.
The film has also been playing to great reception at such film festivals as:
The Science + Fiction Film Festival, Italy
The Shriekfest Horror and Science Fiction Film Festival
The Phoenix Comic-Con Film Festival
The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival
The Cannes Film Market
The Fen-Con Science Fiction Festival
The CineFantasy Film Festival, Brazil
The International Horror and Science-Fiction Film Festival (Winner, Best Sci-Fi Feature)
Details for the film's DVD release should be available in early 2010 following its On Demand television run.
About The Film:
In the future: The world is ravaged, our planet is in a state of decay. In a sheltered research facility a handful of scientists investigate ways to sustain plant life. Dr. Benjamin Rockwell is called to the facility to investigate the mysterious death of Smith, one of the scientists, whose body has become encased in a strange, green growth. After getting over the shock and completing an examination, Rockwell realizes that, beneath the surface, Smith is still alive. Now in Earth’s darkest hours these scientists must figure out what mysteries lay inside the chrysalis, the dawn of a new super-being or the final destruction of man.
Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis features John Klemantaski (Viva), Darren Kendrick (Disorder, the upcoming Marvel’s Thor), Corey Landis (Dinocroc Vs. Supergator), Elina Madison (Brothers and Sisters), Larry Dirk (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), and Glen Vaughan (Jesse James: Legend, Outlaw, Terrorist).
The film is produced by Roger Lay, Jr. and directed by Tony Báez Milán. Cheyenne Pesko is the editor and post-production supervisor. Gabriel Diniz serves as director of photography with production design by Gladys Rodriguez. Music is composed and conducted by Brandon Moore
The film features special creature effects by Romaire Studios, the FX facility founded by EMMY Award winner Lee Romaire. Some of Romaire's recent credits include the TNT series Nightmares and Dreamscapes, based on the short stories of Stephen King as well as the HBO hit Drama series Six Feet Under, for which he was awarded an Emmy award for outstanding make up effects (prosthethics).
Principal photography on Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis took place on multiple sets at the Burbank Production Stages where production designer Gladys Rodriguez and her art department built a completely connected and functional environment recreating an underground research facility. Each set was connected through a series of hallways and passageways allowing the crew to shoot continuously without revealing any set backings or lights. Everything was built-in, allowing the film crew to follow the characters on camera from one part of the facility to another without ever having to cut. The filmmakers decided to go for a look that pays tribute to the science fiction films of the genre’s golden age. For that same reason, it was decided to build everything physically and limit the use of computer generated effects.
Additional work was done on the FX stage at Vlaze Media Networks in Los Angeles where multiple news segments and emergency broadcasts where shot in order to composite into monitors on the research facility set. Second unit photography was completed at the El Mirage dry lake bed in California, and the rainforest of El Yunque in Puerto Rico where the film’s breathtaking finale was shoot at 3,800 feet above sea level on one of the rainforest’s highest peaks.
The film also features a sweeping orchestral score by composer Brandon Moore, which was recorded in Los Angeles utilizing a live orchestra combined with electronic sounds performed on synths by the composer in order to heighten the film’s chilling undertone.
About Ray Bradbury:
Ray Bradbury, the creative force behind the story Chrysalis, is known as one of America’s greatest creative minds. Throughout his long and remarkable career, Bradbury has established himself as a novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet.
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, as well as the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury’s masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine For Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and I Sing The Body Electric! In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays.
His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum “recommended reading” anthologies. Ray Bradbury’s work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, The Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and The PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others.
In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He also adapted sixty-five of his stories for HBO’s Ray Bradbury Theater. He is also the recipient of a 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. He resides in Los Angeles, California where he still writes and occasionally lectures.
