It was in March when we learned that John Boyega was "in negotiations" to star in an indie sci-fi feature titled Creeping Zero, to be directed by Billy O'Brien.
At the time, little info was available on that project, other than that it's based on a short story from a book of short stories by Jeff Noon titled Pixel Juice; the short story was made into a 3D short film/teaser 2 years ago, by the same director, which apparently made a splash at the Berlinale, where the producers went to look for money to make the feature version. I found a Facebook page that had some stills from it, along with a post saying that they were seeking some "heavy duting financing" to turn the short into a feature.
So it looks like they finally got all their "heavy duty financing," 2 years later.
Reported earlier this afternoon, the €7m ($8.5 million) action/sci-fi/horror is currently in pre-production, and will be shot in Hungary, starting this October.
John Boyega stars in the film alongside Dominic Monaghan, Ashley Hinshaw, Eddie Marsan and Adam Deacon.
And we now have an official synopsis for the film, which reads:
Set in 2023, the movie’s plot details a world divided into two tribes – normal humans and the Blanks, a group born without proper facial features. A new terrorist group and breakaway group of Blanks known as the Fumati is threatening the status quo and is using hi-tech devices to kill humans. In order to restore calm, a security outfit named the Creeping Zero has been tasked with hunting down the elusive Fumati.
John Boyega will play the film's lead character named Lenny, who is a member of the Creeping Zero crew; Ashley Hinshaw will play his love interest Camille.
Go John! THE leading man role in a sci-fi project; AND he has a love interest. How often does all that happen for black actors in one movie? This is cause for a celebration folks 🙂
Co-produced by Ireland’s Grand Pictures, all of the VFX work and the majority of the post-production will be handled by Windmill Lane in Dublin.
Filming in Hungary is expected to get underway in October and will last for around six weeks, so we can expect to see this in 2013.
Anyone read the original short story by Jeff Noon that the film is based on? I'll pick up the book of short stories that contains it.
