Chernin Entertainment has picked up the rights to the dystopian story.
The character driven short Noon is Kasra Farahani’s attempt at showing that he has the chops to make a high production value sci-fi film, and it seems that it worked, as he’s sold the rights for Noon to Chernin Entertainment, the studio behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Terra Nova.
Short films seem to be a popular way to find a studio for your film recently. It’s an interesting trend in what it says about the importance of visuals and an ability to showcase them in pitching a film concept, but it’s also a bit of a shame, as it means only those who already have enough connections or resources to make something like this, no small feat in an of itself, will get the chance to make such pitches.
Farahani, for example, was able to get this scene made due to his industry connections, through his career as a concept artist. Not just any sci-fi writer with a good idea can put together a pitch like this:
The idea of the setting is a theoretically possible future earth, in which the poles have shifted due to human interference, creating an imbalance of sunlight in some places. The story takes place in the city of Noon, so called because sun is directly overhead at all times. The short film is a single scene from a longer script, which “sets up the world’s unique premise and introduces our protagonist, Gray, a coyote numbed to the cruelty of the world and his part in it. We watch Gray struggle to salvage what humanity still exists within him when profit is pitted against morality.”
As part of the deal, Farahani is on board to direct the film, but the studio will not be using his original screenplay. It will be rewritten at least once before development begins, so it will likely look quite different when it finally hits theaters.
Currently Farahani’s name is the only one attached to the project. Development and casting won’t begin until after the rewrite, and that can’t start until Chernin hires a writer. The earliest we’re likely to see the feature-length version of Noon is 2016, and that’s if everything goes perfect and smooth.
