Time Runs Out for One Man and Mankind in LX 2048Starring James D’Arcy, Anna Brewster, Delroy LindoDystopian Near-Future Drama Premieres in Virtual Cinemasand North American VOD September 25th
Los Angeles, CA – Quiver Distribution, in a partnership with Chimera Pictures and Outta the Bloc, has announced the virtual theatrical and North American digital debut of writer/director Guy Moshe’s LX 2048, a near-future dystopian drama about one father’s search for a way forward for his family before his time runs out and a clone takes his place. LX 2048 will be available to rent or own September 25th on Amazon, iTunes, Comcast, Spectrum, Dish, DirecTV, Vudu and more in the US and Canada.
James D’Arcy (Dunkirk, “Broadchurch”, Marvel’s “Agent Carter”) headlines the cast as a man who has resisted humanity’s exodus to virtual reality. With his death fast approaching and a clone ready to step in as husband and father, Adam struggles to find a way out of his situation, to protect his wife (Anna Brewster, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “Versailles”) and children. The cast is rounded out by frequent Spike Lee collaborator and Tony Award nominee Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X, Da 5 Bloods, “The Good Fight”) and BAFTA winner Gina McKee (“Our Friends in the North”, “The Borgias”, Phantom Thread).
In 2048, the sun has become too toxic to leave one’s house in daytime and life as we know it exists mostly inside the virtual realm. Against this backdrop, a dying man fights for his family’s future while coping with what it means to be human…
SYNOPSIS
It is 2048. Mankind has by now destroyed the ozone layer to such a degree that normal human beings cannot be out in daytime. People spend their waking hours at night and almost everything is done inside the virtual realm. From work to school to socializing, most people just stay home and conduct their affairs from their Virtual Reality designated spaces. Mental depression has become so prevalent that the entire population is required to take the state issued pill 001LithiumX.
In this new world order, Adam Bird is a rare breed. Adam insists on waking up during the day. He insists on leaving his house and going to work in a physical office. He has 3 kids in a time when most people barely breed, and he adamantly refuses to take 001LithiumX, fighting to stay human in a world that is rapidly transforming into the artificial.
But things change when Adam discovers his heart is mysteriously failing. With no possibility for an organ transplant, Adam is now scheduled to be replaced by a cloned upgrade – an improved version of himself that wll be supplied to his estranged wife as part of the Premium 3 government insurance plan.
Spiraling out of control, Adam starts living on borrowed time, seeking to find a solution before his replica will be sent to raise his kids and replace his existence across the board.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
LX 2048 was a film that came to me in its entirety, almost like a stream of consciousness.
Having been happily married for years, with three of our own kids to boot, my wife and I were suddenly confronted with collapsing marriages and tough separations from all over. Inside a period of two years, we have literally been intimately involved with six different stories of couples with children having massive problems between them. As is natural in such situations, one immediately starts to examine his own relationship choices and/or ideas about parenthood… And so did I…
In conversations I had with some of these friends, certain motifs kept coming back. Issues of self-realization. Of individuals feeling like their happiness was sacrificed on the family altar.
As all of this was going on, I couldn’t escape the notion that some of this general collapse of the family structure, is deeply rooted in the technological revolution and the rapidly changing world around us. Between my own kids preferring to view content alone on their own individual tablets (as opposed to gathering around the TV like we used to do). Online shopping gradually replacing the physical experience. Automated machines replacing our cashiers. Social networks abound replacing social interactions. Cars that self-drive… Internet dating… Food delivery from an app etc., etc., etc…. I had come to realize most of us have more intimate relationships with our phones nowadays than with actual living breathing human beings… Hell, even when sitting on the physical subway, or going out to a physical coffee shop, most of what you see is people engaging with their phones…
Around that same time, I was professionally introduced to the cutting-edge technology in both the AR and VR space. It was mind blowing on many aspects. And I started thinking what will happen when the birth of VR evolves into replacing our personal devices as well (which is a true aim of the medium)? How will that affect life as we know it?
It suddenly hit me we are heading into an increasingly isolated life experience. What use will we have as biological creatures in a world that seems to be digitizing in the speed of light?
And speaking of light, I have always believed that light is in fact the only Godly presence in our universe. It keeps this planet warm enough so we can live here… It invokes the photosynthesis that creates the oxygen we breathe… It is the only tool helping us to measure the progress of time…
I wondered how could it be that our civilization is evolving into a state of self- isolation and self-blindness, when we are social creatures who are depended on sunlight…?
To me, the only logic in it is the idea that the true aim of any civilization is its own extinctiction.
Or in other words, that humanity keeps evolving only to gradually render itself obsolete.
But in this endless paradox, I find a great sense of cosmic humor. Because the majority of mankind grapples with these questions with a tremendous sense of existential dread…
Where in fact, we are the ones to blame for it.
This was the core idea of the film I wanted to make. I wanted to follow an average joe in Adam Bird. A man who tries very hard to be a good and responsible provider to his family. But that somehow still remembers he is first and foremost a human being – a biological creature. A sophisticated animal if you will… And while he still remembers it, the world around him seems to have completely forgotten where they all came from…
For me, the best way to show it was through some outside looking glass. Adam Bird is on the petri-dish and we get to examine him. Hopefully, to the point where we can reflect back to our own lives, choices, fears, and of course, desires…
In adopting this outside view I wanted to show how ridiculous we look like in the real world while experiencing our own pale manufactured alternative… It reminded me of school events where parents look at their kids on stage through mobile phones instead of actually seeing them with their own eyes… It’s like we are gradually forgetting how to live…
I also kept wondering what would be the meaning of our existence in partial isolation from one another…? What would happen to our dearest concept of all – love – in a world that seems increasingly designed for fleeting encounters (virtual or otherwise)…
I imagined a world like this would make God angry… And the wrath of God is presented by the sun (especially as global warming is indeed a true casualty of civilization)…
I figured this type of world would have to be in some societal state of global depression. And comically, I assumed governments would have to deal with this by issuing everyone a pill to maintain law and order and meet less resistance from their potentially raging citizens…
I finished the film in February 2020… We were planning to do our first buyer screening of it sometime in April… And then Covid-19 happened…
And suddenly, we were all at home and isolated. Or wearing mask to go out. Our kids are going to school on zoom. Our work is done entirely online. We cannot get out or socialize like we used to. We cannot even date and meet real people like we used to. And we’re all just vying for some government issued pill/vaccine that will allegedly save us from all of it…
Ironically or not, the only winner in this situation is our Planet Earth, that finally received a much-needed break from the pollution and the continuous torment we put it through…
And I find some humor in all of this. As tragic as things may be. I always thought self- deprecating humor is the best cure for everything. This is, of course, also the main thing Adam Bird lacks in his quest for happiness. It is the one advantage his clone has on him. And it is why I feel this satirical moral tale was so worth telling… So that we can reflect and smile.
I always want to provoke thought with my films. That to me, is the biggest gift cinema can give us. To make us think, and reflect, and maybe maybe learn something about ourselves along the way. I truly hope I succeeded. And if not, well, there’s always the next film…
CAST BIOGRAPHIES
JAMES D’ARCY (Adam Bird)
James D’Arcy is an actor, writer, and director. D’Arcy trained at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art and is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Edwin Jarvis in the Marvel television series Agent Carter and the 2019 film Avengers: Endgame. Other television credits include: A&E’s Those Who Kill, alongside Chloë Sevigny, ITV’s critically acclaimed Broadchurch opposite Olivia Colman and Showtime’s Homeland with Claire Danes.
On the big screen James could most recently be seen in Christopher Nolan’s all-star cast Dunkirk and Tomas Alfredson’s The Snowman with Michael Fassbender and J.K. Simmons.
Additional feature film credits include James McTeigue’s thriller Survivor; the comedy Let’s Be Cops, opposite Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson; Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas, both for the Wachowskis; the biopic Hitchcock. opposite Anthony Hopkins; Madonna’s W.E.; and Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
Up next we will see James in the soon to be released feature Six Minutes to Midnight with Judi Dench and new series Leonardo with Aidan Turner.
Made in Italy (D’Arcy’s feature directorial debut, starring Liam Neeson) is out now in theatres and on digital.
ANNA BREWSTER (Reena Bird)
Anna Brewster can currently be seen in a lead role in the Netflix original film THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME, starring alongside Edgar Ramirez and Michael Pitt. The film is the adaptation of Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini’s 2009 critically acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. The story is set in a near future where the US government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to commit crime.
Anna is perhaps best known for her role as ‘Madame Montespan’, the female lead in the hugely popular French period drama VERSAILLES (Canal+) about Louis XIV’s time in power. Also starring George Blagden (Les Miséreables, Black Mirror), it ran for three seasons and was watched in 146 countries worldwide.
Further credits include STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS, THE TUDORS (opposite Henry Cavill, Jonathan Rhys Meyers), SILENT WITNESS (BBC), LUTHER (BBC/NETFliX), NEARLY FAMOUS, MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS opposite Judi Dench and Kelly Reilly) and and title role in ANITA & ME written by Meera Syal and starring Omid DJalili and Max Beesley.
DELROY LINDO (Donald Stein)
Delroy Lindo can currently be seen as Paul, in Spike Lee’s film Da 5 Bloods. Lindo has had memorable roles in films such as The Cider House Rules; Heist; and previously garnered critical acclaim in a trio of films with director, Lee: Clockers; Crooklyn and Malcolm X. Other notable films include Wondrous Oblivion; The Core; The One; Gone in 60 Seconds; Ransom; Get Shorty; Romeo Must Die; This Christmas (also as executive producer); the 2016 remake of Point Break; and Pixar’s Up! He can also be seen in the independent films, Malicious and 001LithiumX.
On TV, he starred as Adrian Boseman in CBS’ The Good Fight (sequel to The Good Wife). He’s featured in TV series such as Believe; The Chicago Code and Kidnapped; and in films for TV, such as Soul of The Game, (playing baseball legend Satchel Paige); Profoundly Normal; Strange Justice (winning a Peabody Award); & Glory & Honor (playing Arctic Explorer Matthew Henson). He won an NAACP Award for a guest appearance on Law and Order: SVU. Also for TV, he produced and directed documentary interview films featuring Spike Lee, Charles Burnett and Joan Chen.
On Broadway, Lindo received Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations, playing Herald Loomis in August Wilson’s, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone; and played Walter Lee in the Kennedy Center and Los Angeles productions of A Raisin in the Sun (Helen Hayes Award Nomination and NAACP Image Award, Best Actor). He debuted on Broadway in Athol Fugard’s play, Master Harold and the Boys, with James Earl Jones, going on to appear with Jones, in the first National Tour of the play.
Lindo directed the plays Blue Door and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone to critical acclaim at Berkeley Repertory Theater; and won a Los Angeles Theater Weekly Award directing the play, Medal of Honor Rag.
Mr. Lindo has an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Virginia Union University; a BFA degree (cum laude) from San Francisco State University; and an MFA from New York University’s Gallatin School.
