Laced
Sandy Hunter, Cazador Inc
Language: English
Based On: Original Screenplay
Project Type: Feature Film
Genre: Thriller
Stage of Development: Script & Director Attachment
Estimated Length (minutes): 100 minutes
Director: Stephen Campanelli
Director Bio:
Stephen Campanelli is an acclaimed award-winning film director and cameraman, who has worked on several Oscar winning films with his boyhood idol, Clint Eastwood. Stephen has contributed to and witnessed six Academy award winning performances including: The Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Stephen's talents have been recognized by winning several prestigious awards throughout his career. Since 2015, he has helmed 4 feature films including, the award stephencampanelli.com winning Drinkwater, Momentum, Grand Isle, and the #1 box office film, Indian Horse, which won over 18 film festivals awards worldwide. Stephen has also directed a pilot for Fox, along with several nationwide commercials, and he recently completed How To Rob A Bank for Netflix, Earth Abides for MGM+/Amazon Prime, and directed second unit for Apple TV+'s FireBug. He is now ready to breathe life into his next project. Proposed or confirmed talent and creative/production team members (e.g. actors, writer, executive producer, etc.)
Total Budget: 8 million
Percent Confirmed: Development support of 50K CAD only at this time.
Currency: CAD
List names of confirmed partners: Raven Banner Films, distributor. Government of New Brunsiwck funding.
Writer: Simon Wakelin
What is this project seeking?
Financing, Broadcaster, Co-production Partner
Logline: A neuroscientist racing to cure Parkinson’s is hired by the CIA for mind experiments on a tide-locked island, only to uncover an elite society determined to weaponize the mind. The Wicker Man meets Black Mirror.
Synopsis (max 400 words):
Sarah, a brilliant research scientist has developed a groundbreaking device called the Neuro-PULSE, a headset capable of stimulating and monitoring brain activity to treat depression. After discovering that it holds the potential to cure Parkinson's disease, her obsessive research knows no bounds, micro-dosing patients with psychotropics to enhance the headset's effect – until she causes a patient to fall into a coma. As a result, Sarah is unceremoniously thrown out of University. All is lost until an intelligence officer from Langley explains that communists have found the key to mind control, that America must retaliate, and that her study could be the answer. Sarah agrees to fight the communist threat and travels with her assistant Liam to a secret offshore base, beginning experiments that tap into the brain's "God module” — raising questions over the limits of science and the human mind. Symbols of the Black Sun are discovered littered across the island’s mansion, accompanied by eerie nightmares, unexplained lapses of time, and strange natural phenomena. Then the discovery of a concealed passage to an ancient barn is found, with a sacrificial altar covered with occult symbols. In the shadows lies "The Dark Book of Blood" — an ancient manuscript teeming with blood rituals, incantations, and ominous prophecies. Desperate for help, Sarah calls the Dean of Science explaining she fears for her life but that her cure for Parkinson's is almost complete. His calm demeanor brings a new sense of confidence in her. However, Sarah discovers photographs of the Dean dressed in Third Reich paraphernalia, realizing she is there under false pretenses. Worse, the Dean and his nefarious cult family arrive on the island, and Sarah and Liam find themselves ensnared in a deadly trap.
Contact Information: sandyhunter@cazador.ca
