2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #39. Jonathan Helpert – IO

2018 came and will have went and IO will not have dropped. Perhaps there is a lot more after effect works demanded for this sci-fi feature, which participated at the Sundance Institute’s Writers Lab in 2012 and was a Sundance Institute Catalyst Forum selected project prior to going into production in October of 2016. Jonathan Helpert directed the film with the likes of Margaret Qualley, Anthony Mackie, and Danny Huston toplining the project. Netflix will likely showcase the film at least once prior to adding it to their line-up.

Gist: Written by Clay Jeter, Charles Spano, and Will Basanta, the coming-of-age story follows examines the dangers of humanity’s current relationship with the planet. It centers on Sam Walden (Qualley), a teenager surviving as one of the last people on an abandoned post-cataclysmic Earth, who is racing to find a cure for her poisoned home world before the last shuttle off the planet to the distant human space colony leaves her stranded. Mackie plays Micah, a complicated and mysterious refugee on his way to the imminent shuttle launch who makes Sam question whether she can really alter Earth’s fate.

Production Co./Producers: Production Co./Producers: Mandalay Pictures’ Jason Michael Berman (Burning Sands), Untitled Entertainment’s Laura Rister (The Free World).

Prediction: Perhaps the Premiere section.

U.S. Distributor: Netflix.