Queensbury Pictures, the recently launched Chicago- and London-based production company, has signed Jacob Gentry to direct Broadcast Signal Intrusion, set to shoot in Chicago later this year.
The film marks Queensbury’s follow-up to its debut production, the psychological horror film Girl on the Third Floor, which bowed at SXSW and is making its market debut at Cannes.
Broadcast Signal Intrusion is described as “an unsettling journey into our collective technological nightmares,” “part-Zodiac and part-Lost Highway by way of Aphex Twin” and “a nerve-shredding horror film that confronts our deepest, darkest fears of both man and machine.”
While logging tapes of decades-old TV broadcasts, videographer James comes across a surreal and disturbing clip of what appears to be an imprisoned android. James believes it’s the product of a mysterious broadcast signal hacking, and his discovery takes a sinister turn when he tracks down similar broadcast intrusions that send him on an obsessive mission. Now James must confront two very real possibilities: that the videos may be clues to a crime beyond all comprehension, and that whoever was behind them may be very aware that James is coming uncomfortably close to the truth.
In keeping with Queensbury’s “produced in Chicago” ethos, the story is loosely inspired by actual broadcast interruptions that occurred in the city in the late 1980s.
“I’m thrilled about this project and working with the Queensbury team, who have already proven to be true champions of independent filmmakers,” said Gentry.
Gentry has directed an array of films and TV movies, including the award-winning romantic mystery Synchronicity, the just-completed sci-fi thriller Night Sky, the My Super Psycho Sweet 16 trilogy and the technological thriller The Signal.
Broadcast Signal Intrusion is based on a feature script developed by Queensbury. It was written by Tim Woodall and Phil Drinkwater, a British writing duo who submitted the screenplay through New Blood, an initiative set up and run by Queensbury partner Giles Edwards since 2017 in partnership with the U.K.’s premier genre event Frightfest.
Greg Newman, Nicola Goelzhaeuser and Giles Edwards are producing for Queensbury. Casting on the film will be announced soon.
