James D’Arcy Gives Students A Deadly Choice In Sci-Fi Thriller The Philosophers
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You want post-apocalyptic science fiction movies? Just pick three random movies from the last couple of years, or out of the projects that have yet to come out or get made, and you’re bound to find one. I’m not saying this in a negative light, as it’s fine by me. I don’t mind depressing science fiction. But how would you guys like to watch a movie where the inciting incident is merely theorizing about such a disastrous event?
Actually, news about the upcoming drama The Philosophers isn’t new, as the film is completed, looks pretty damned cool, and was awaiting a buyer. Phase 4 stepped up at the Cannes Film Festival and became that buyer, snatching up the U.S. and Canadian rights to the film, which was financed by Indonesia’s SCTV, as it takes place in Jakarta. It is written and directed by John Huddles, who hasn’t been active since 1998’s At Satchem Farm.
For its star power, it skews young due to the subject matter. James D’Arcy — in both Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending, so he’s growing on us — is a philosophy teacher at an international school in Jakarta, where he begins an experiment on his graduate class of 20 students. D’Arcy challenges the class to elect which 10 people they would send into an underground shelter in the event of a worldwide apocalypse, leaving them to be the key to humanity’s future. I don’t know what the science is behind it, but they’re taken to each one of their personal ideas of how the world will end, and it looks like the personal politics get ramped up and worlds change inside and out. I hope there’s a Battle Royale scene. I guess I should consider these students’ sanely arriving at an answer at some point, but I just picture everyone going berserk on everyone else.
The film co-stars Bonnie Wright (the Harry Potter series), Sophie Lowe (The Slap), Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids), Kate Findlay (The Killing), and Erin Moriarty (The Kings of Summer). A release on VOD and in theaters will happen later this year, but no specific dates are set. I challenge you to elect 10 people to predict when the film will get released.
