Vertical Entertainment is planning to give the sci-fi thriller Risen a theatrical and on demand release on August 20th, and a trailer has been released online to help you figure out if this is a movie you'd like to watch later this month. Check it out in the embed above!
Written, directed, and produced by Eddie Arya, Risen was filmed at locations in Australia and Canada. The filmmaker describes the project as "a true cinematic journey about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life."
Here's the synopsis:
Disaster unfolds when a meteor strikes a small town, turning the environment uninhabitable and killing everything in the surrounding area. Exobiologist Lauren Stone is called to find answers to the unearthly event. As she begins to uncover the truth, imminent danger awakens and it becomes a race against time to save mankind.
And here's a different synopsis:
Exobiologist Dr Lauren Stone finds her troubled life altered irrevocably by the arrival of a meteorite in the small rural town of Badger, New York. When a toxic gas lays waste to the surrounding area, Dr Stone is reluctantly drawn back into a mystery that threatens not only her fragile emotional state, but also vast centres of population around the world.
Newcomer Nicole Schalmo, who is also credited as assistant producer on the film, stars alongside Jack Campbell (Home and Away), Dominic Stone (Rake), and Kenneth Trujillo (Black Lightning).
The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival said Risen is "a contemplative, compelling narrative that melds the thoughtful introspection and intellectualism of Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival and Robert Zemeckis’ Contact with more traditional elements reminiscent of such genre classics as Invaders from Mars and The Day the Earth Stood Still."
This is the third feature film from Arya, following The Navigator in 2014 and 2016's The System. Poster art for Risen can be seen below.