Roadside Attractions has released a new trailer for its upcoming dystopian thriller, Branded.
The film is a surrealist look at the way advertising has invaded our brain-space, and follows a protagonist named Mish who sees monstrous forces which allow the corporate brands of our world to literally prey upon our minds.
The first trailer was mostly about the visuals, while this one shows off a bit more about the plot, which seems to be a sort of invasion by beings from another planet, or perhaps another dimension, or maybe even created by human scientists. It’s not a military invasion, but a mental one. The creatures are slowly devouring our life-force through the advertising and branding which is so prevalent in modern society. Only Misha, however, can see them, so he’s the one who must fight them.
As part of the promotion for the film, the trailers, accompanying posters and other promo materials will contain gobs of QR codes for fans to scan with their communication devices. The codes redirect to the movie’s website, which details more about the dystopian world in which Branded is set, offering “a deeper glimpse into the film’s alternative universe of out-of-control brands, consumer gluttony and insatiable materialism through exclusive image and video content.”
To go along with the trailer we also have this new synopsis:
After Misha skyrockets to the top of the advertising business, a tragic mishap on the set of one of his productions torpedoes his career and he retreats into self-imposed exile. Ten years later, Misha returns to a radically changed world and finds himself plagued by visions of bizarre and terrifying creatures with the ability to influence people’s thoughts, desires and actions. Creatures only he can see.
He soon realizes the creatures are part of a clandestine campaign unleashed by a rival advertising agency to make “fat the new fabulous” and create a new era of uncontrolled consumer appetite. In order to save mankind, Misha uses his own considerable marketing skills to launch an ingenious plan to try to eradicate the plague. But the corporate legions will not go down without a fight.
Branded, which stars, Ed Stoppard, Jeffrey Tambor, Leelee Sobieski, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, and Max von Sydow, hits theaters September 7th, 2012.
