EDITORIALS

Video Blog: Footage from Josh Trank's 'Chronicle' Looks Awesome

by Alex Billington
January 6, 2012

It's all fun and games until everybody gets hurt. Yesterday afternoon I was invited down to the Fox lot in Century City to see roughly 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage revealed from an upcoming film called Chronicle. Directed and conceived by Josh Trank, co-written with Max Landis, it's a new "found-footage" film about high school kids who get telekinetic superpowers - we featured a kick ass trailer for it last year. While the footage didn't reveal anything major plot-wise, we did get a glimpse at a few of the more intense moments and it looks amazing, I cannot wait to see it, one of my most anticipated pre-summer 2012 movies.

Following the footage screening and event, which included a Q&A with young up-and-coming director Josh Trank (he's on Twitter as @joshtrank) and Fox production exec Steve Asbell, I recorded a video blog with my friend Peter from SlashFilm. We were shown about five different scenes, most of them were extended moments from the first trailer, but we also saw the moments where they first "find the mysterious hole" in the beginning and learn to levitate and fly, plus a climatic scene in the later half. Watch our video blog here:

Chronicle is a story about three high school friends who, through reasons yet to be seen, gain superpowers including mainly telekinesis. Trank explained that the film is much more of a drama about what it would be like if this happened for real, if three teens got these secret powers and played around with them. But it goes beyond that, as they each have unique backgrounds/relationships that shape their characters, and one of them lets his darker side loose through all this - that one being Andrew, the guy filming the everyone to begin with (it also has a bit of an Akira feel). It has a found footage focus at the beginning, but Josh said one of the most exciting ideas was being able to progress to the point where the character uses his telekinesis to float the camera around him without a need to hold it, which makes sense and should be awesome to see.

I just think Chronicle is an incredibly original and exciting concept, combined with the passion of a young up-and-coming filmmaker with a strong vision. Trank said he was inspired by how as a kid he daydreamed of having telekinesis and the ability to move things with his mind (what kid didn't?), and now he's making that idea a reality, at least on film. I'm sure we'll be seeing much more from Chronicle soon, as it's going to be out in theaters quickly - starting February 3rd in a few weeks. Here's another recently unveiled poster:

You can catch the first official trailer for Josh Trank & Max Landis' Chronicle here, and we'll keep continue to keep you updated leading up to its opening in early February. Don't miss this one, it looks awesome!

Filed under Editorial, Feat, Hype, Video Blog

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