David Karlak sold his action/sci-fi pitch Rise to Warner Bros. in 2011, and has now made a short film based on the story, debuting here at The Hollywood Reporter.
Karlak, who previously directed the short film The Candidate, sets the film in the near-future where robots are being targeted for elimination after developing emotions like humans. But an insurgency is brewing.
Anton Yelchin and Rufus Sewell star in the film based on a screenplay Karlak wrote with writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (the Saw series).
Told from the perspective of the robots, Rise features some stunning visuals. It was produced by Roy Lee and Trevor Engelson. It was featured as a virtual reality experience (built by Nurulize) at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival’s Storyscapes exhibition. The experience allowed viewers to walk through a photo-realistic set from the movie and see the characters up close at an unparalleled level of detail.
Karlak, who is repped by Underground and Bloom Hergott, previously sold a pitch to Fox called Outliers. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan are writing the supernatural action pic, with Karlak attached to direct.
Watch the film Rise below:
