VIDEO: Trailer debuts for ‘Solacium,’ a mysterious sci-fi drama filmed in Scranton
With the presidential election coming up and recent violence sweeping the nation, the future looks scary enough already, but the new trailer for “Solacium,” a science fiction drama filmed in and starring a cast from Scranton, makes it seem even more foreboding.
Based on the short story “Living in the Singularity” by Scranton writer and blogger Tom Borthwick (which can be read here or purchased in an anthology here) and adapted into a screenplay by Don McGlynn of local improv comedy group Here We Are in Spain, the movie is directed by Lindsay Barrasse of Voyager Video and Steam Magnolias and stars McGlynn, Jessica McDonough, Conor McGuigan, Jennifer Frey, Casey Thomas, Conor O’Brien, Rob Klubeck, and Baxter Pancake. The trailer just scratches the surface of the heady story, and its description only reveals minor details:
As their friends and loved ones disappear into the hopeful but mysterious “Singularity,” a couple struggles to decide whether to stay in a world that is falling apart around them or accept the promise of Solacium, a new kind of human existence.
The official website, which is set up to look like the website for the fictional (and sinister) Solacium Corporation, offers a bit more:
When confronted with the opportunity to “Integrate” into the collective consciousness known as the Singularity, Tim isn’t all that interested. But his wife, Mary, is. As people in their lives Integrate one by one, the couple is confronted with a choice: stay in an increasingly empty physical world or risk the unknown in the digital one? Is the perfect world promised by Solacium, the company founded by Singularity inventor Roy Kessler, all it’s cracked up to be?
Previously, the only footage released from the film was a series of propaganda videos from Solacium on its Facebook page, offering the sort of peace and tranquility that seems too good to be true:
Solacium is due out this fall, and NEPA Scene will keep you up to date as new information is released.
Listen to Barrasse talk about the film a bit in Episode 56 of the NEPA Scene Podcast on women in media. Borthwick also discusses “Solacium” in Episode 37 of the NEPA Scene Podcast on local politics and education:
