“LX 2048”

Time Runs Out for One Man and Mankind in LX 2048 Starring James D’Arcy, Anna Brewster, Delroy Lindo Dystopian Near-Future Drama Premieres in Virtual Cinemas and North American VOD September 25th

By Patrick Donovan – Author/Screenwriter
US Navy Disabled Veteran – 1980 – 1991
Seattle, WA (The Hollywood Times) 09/25/2020

“When reality is never enough, do you delve into the realm of avatars and cyberworld to fulfill your dreams, what’s missing and perhaps, seeking something you’re not getting from the physical world?  You’re not alone!”

– Patrick Donovan

About LX 2048:

Los Angeles, CA – Quiver Distribution, in a partnership with Chimera Pictures and Outta the Bloc, has announced the virtual theatrical and North American digital debut of writer/director Guy Moshe’s LX 2048, a near-future dystopian drama about one father’s search for a way forward for his family before his time runs out and a clone takes his place.  LX 2048 will be available to rent or own September 25th on Amazon, iTunes, Comcast, Spectrum, Dish, DirecTV, Vudu and more in the US and Canada.

James D’Arcy (Dunkirk, “Broadchurch”, Marvel’s “Agent Carter”) headlines the cast as a man who has resisted humanity’s exodus to virtual reality.  With his death fast approaching and a clone ready to step in as husband and father, Adam struggles to find a way out of his situation, to protect his wife (Anna Brewster, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, “Versailles”) and children.  The cast is rounded out by frequent Spike Lee collaborator and Tony Award nominee Delroy Lindo (Malcolm X, Da 5 Bloods, “The Good Fight”) and BAFTA winner Gina McKee (“Our Friends in the North”, “The Borgias”, Phantom Thread).

Cast:

Logline:
In 2048, the sun has become too toxic to leave one’s house in daytime and life as we know it exists mostly inside the virtual realm. Against this backdrop, a dying man fights for his family’s future while coping with what it means to be human…

Synopsis:
It is 2048.  Mankind has by now destroyed the ozone layer to such a degree that normal human beings cannot be out in daytime.  People spend their waking hours at night and almost everything is done inside the virtual realm.  From work to school to socializing, most people just stay home and conduct their affairs from their Virtual Reality designated spaces.  Mental depression has become so prevalent that the entire population is required to take the state issued pill 001LithiumX.

In this new world order, Adam Bird is a rare breed.  Adam insists on waking up during the day.  He insists on leaving his house and going to work in a physical office.  He has 3 kids in a time when most people barely breed, and he adamantly refuses to take 001LithiumX, fighting to stay human in a world that is rapidly transforming into the artificial.

But things change when Adam discovers his heart is mysteriously failing.   With no possibility for an organ transplant, Adam is now scheduled to be replaced by a cloned upgrade – an improved version of himself that will be supplied to his estranged wife as part of the Premium 3 government insurance plan.  Spiraling out of control, Adam starts living on borrowed time, seeking to find a solution before his replica will be sent to raise his kids and replace his existence across the board.

About Guy Moshe:

GUY MOSHE (Director, Writer, Producer)
Guy Moshe is a Writer, Director, and Producer, working in both Film and TV. In Film, Moshe has recently completed his new indie satirical sci fi drama, LX 2048, which will be released theatrically in the U.S. in September. And then follow with releases in the UK and other International territories come November.

Moshe originally broke onto the international film scene with his critically acclaimed film HOLLY starring Ron Livingston and Virginie Ledoyen. Released in 2007, the film has played in more than twenty international film festivals and received special recognition from the U.N. before its theatrical release.

Moshe’s follow-up film BUNRAKU starred Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Kevin McKidd, Demi Moore and Ron Perlman. Narrated by Mike Patton of FAITH NO MORE with a 100-minute original score from famed composer and jazz giant, Terence Blanchard: this unique film introduced a whole new visual language, and was called by critics, “a cinematic masterpiece and genre transcending movie.” The film premiered in the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival and released theatrically worldwide.

As a filmmaker, Moshe prides himself on being an auteur. Having written each of his films to date they are all singular visions that are quite different from one another in genre, tone, and directorial approach. He is currently attached to direct several new projects, all of which he has written as well.

In addition to his film career, Guy has developed a number of TV shows for companies such as HBO, Universal, Endemol, Sony, and the SyFy Channel across multiple genres.

He has recently finished developing a series for Endgame and Ley Line Entertainment based on a book from Academy Award winning screenwriter, John Briley (Gandhi). This series is currently in the packaging stage and in advanced talks with several networks.

As a producer, Guy has co-produced each one of his own films as well as three additional features for other independent filmmakers. Between the various productions he took part in, he has worked in over 15 countries across four continents.

Guy has extensive experience in the Visual Effects space, having directed numerous motion capture shoots and video game oriented previsualizations, while collaborating with powerhouse commercial houses in both the U.S. and Europe (such as Imaginary Forces, Hornet and Chimney Pot to name a few).

Before pursuing a career in Entertainment, Moshe, who was born and raised in Israel, served 3 years with Israeli Special Forces, and later spent 6 more years in the Israeli Foreign Ministry stationed out of NYC.

He is repped by CAA and Echo Lake, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.

The Review:
A man’s heart is failing.  He’s eligible for Premium 3 to help his family and a now he must deal with the reality of dying. There’s everything virtual now and Adam Bird wants to meet his separated spouse and kids in-person before he dies.  She insists on virtual only and only cares about some papers! Divorce papers, really?

The earth is being burned by the sun.  We were successful in destroying the Ozone. People who go outside must be in orange hazmat suits, facemasks, and goggles. The sky is a burnt orange all the time now. There are solar cut offs to protect you in this dystopian near future film brilliantly done by writer/director Guy Moshe. VR Tech is yesterday’s news! Everything’s going CHIP now. Sooner or later, even “you” will be out of a job.

Our dying man, Adam, is in a real office building, in a real conference room, alone talking in a meeting with the rest of people attending, virtually.  We see only Adam’s side of the conversation as he turns to other empty chairs and argues with his colleagues. There are clones now that are your; “therapist”. Adam feels so very alone trying to simply exist and do his job. Trying to take care of his family. Yet, he’s alone. Missing that one component in life.  People are out during the night what they used to do during the day. Walking their virtual pets, making deliveries, taking a stroll with their children in carriages.

Adam goes to his wife and kids’ home. The kids are playing in their VR worlds, what our kids do today; play on XBOX or PlayStation.  Everything is virtual, even sex! Well, did you think it wouldn’t be?  Thank god the kids are connected because the kids don’t see or hear anything anymore. Good, right?  Is this what we are to become or are we already there?

Ever want to wish you could shave and never get cut again? In this near dystopian future, you shave with no blade but only a laser light between two diodes. Heaven!

Adam and Rena (his wife) are dealing with serious issues. He’s presenting her with real life and she simply doesn’t care.  Adam is dealing with his VR girlfriend seeking someone to love. But what is love besides the dictionary definition.

Definition of love

(1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal
// love for a child

(2): attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers
// after all these years, they are still very much in love.

(3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests
// love for his old schoolmates

And it goes on.

Then Delroy Lindo appears! What an awesome character from “Da Bloods” with the late Chadwick Boseman. Lindo is Donald Stein.  He’s the man that Adam Bird called to discuss CHIP. This makes this entire movie, cool! This is the father of human cloning. No, not Delroy, Donald. No, not that Donald. Donald Stein. Moving on.

This movie is about what we’re heading to. Two paths: Virtual or Physical.  This is about two men: Adam Bird and Donald Stein and how they can help each other, learn about each other, and find ways to the ends to a means.  It’s about Adam and Rena and Adam and Maria (his VR lover). It’s about Premium III – The wave of the future. It’s all about human augmentation. But there’s a dark side of this. What Adam finds about what Donald Stein created helps them both have an in-depth discussion about life, death, and life again. (Reference: Star Trek III, Dr. McCoy)

This also explores the relationship between Adam and Rena and why their marriage is on the rocks.  It hits home. Are we never happy because we can never accept being just “average?” Is that so bad? It’s about trust, right? Is cheating, cheating when it’s an A.I. avatar, really cheating?  Are destined for a virtual world and leaving the physical world behind? Physical is so, passé.

This is an incredible movie.  How do you perceive your world? Is your relationship with your spouse on the rocks? Do you yearn for something more? Premium III can handle that. By the way, the kids in this movie don’t go to school, in a physical sense and yet, in this time in COVID 19, my kids attend what used to be their physical school now called a “Virtual Academy.”  We are already there!  They’ve been home since early March 2020. This movie “is” our reality.

We all are connected, collectively. Let me ask you something: What if your mom missed meeting your father, would who you are be you or someone else?  Think about it. Are you missing that existential connection to human reality?  Is that what you are missing?  Why do you connect to your virtual world? Are you sneaking around, in the realm, wanting something you don’t have in reality and yet, you get virtually? How many virtual “you’s” are there? How many different “you’s” exist online in the realm of virtual existence? Why?

That’s what this movie’s about.  That’s who we are becoming. We don’t want to learn to connect to other human’s, no, we want the fake, the “What if…” world of us to feel, something. What if your spouse does nothing but sit around and plays games on their phone? Sleeps until 11AM or later and ignores you? Is that what you’re experiencing?  I connect with this movie on so many levels not because Adam is me or Adam is us, but rather being a computer programmer, when interviewing Guy, he was so happy that I was able to understand his film and connect with him.

So, just when you think you understand, Adam’s wife, Rena, comes to visit with a proposition: Replace you with a “new dad” a “clone” (Remember the old SNL skit?) because it’s the best solution. Think about the kids. Waste away your remaining days with your virtual lover. WOW!  Then just when you thought it could get any more bizarre, this does!

The Interview with Review with Guy Moshe
Here’s the audio for our audience who are low vision and blind.

Transcription of the interview is below.

Patrick Donovan: How are you Guy welcome to the Hollywood times? How are you doing during this COVID experience?

Guy Moshe: That’s a great question, I guess, pretty much like everybody else, just still trying to figure out, you know, what’s going on and when is it going to end?

Patrick Donovan: Yeah, that’s the question of the year. Isn’t it?  I do have a thesis worth of questions for you. I’m not going to go into all of them. Why the name LX 2048. And where did you come up with the idea for the film?

Guy Moshe: The name LX is of course, a reference to the pill that is central to the movie, which is called 001 Lithium X. I talk about either now or later to explain what it is, but essentially, it’s a kind of government sanctioned peel that is a sort of mandatory to take to level the population that is at risk of having a grand scale cabin fever, not unlike like what’s happening to our world today. So, that’s where LX came from. And 2048 was, at first, I didn’t want to, I kind of set this them in a specific time or a specific year, it was the near future and the film has this kind of satirical tone to it.

But I use 2048 because it’s three years after the supposed singularity where, you know, those that know, it’s the moment where a computer should be theoretically able to download our entire consciousness. So that’s, that’s where that came from and I liked the kind of play on 2048 verses 1984 and all that sort of thing.

Patrick Donovan: So, yeah, I just caught that, man. That’s awesome. you know, I’m a senior software engineer. I’ve been working in it for 40 years with the company now for over two years, and I’m actually developing an AI and I get where you’re going with this virtual thing and the chip and it hit home. My kids are constantly on their XBOX, are plugged in just like the children and the movie where they’re in their virtual room and they’re playing games. They’re totally disconnected from reality. It’s a lot different for when I grew up in the sixties, Guy. Is that one of the reasons why you made this film to bring the awareness of where disconnecting from people?

Guy Moshe: Absolutely. I mean, again, I’m not it’s so, so much fun to, to, to speak to someone who’s actually,  you know, also involved in the cutting edge of technology from a different side of it. I’m not inside technology. I think technology, he brought a lot of wonderful people and people are wonderful things yeah. To our world. and I, and I think you can continue to do so if we kind of act responsibly. I just feel like there is something about our biological nature like our DNA coding, if you will, that wasn’t intended for this and in that lies a big philosophical question in my mind I mean, I think most people don’t think about it or don’t want to think about it, but you look at simple things like are our teeth. Teeth weren’t supposed to last more than 40 to 45 years because we weren’t supposed to live that long.

Our women were supposed to constantly give birth and then breastfeed so then they won’t get pregnant again until they’re ready to give birth again and then that was the cycle for kind of the female species in a way. So, it’s like, and now we live in over 80 years old. So there are so many things we’ve done as a unit by way of civilization and evolution that you have to wonder.

Are we losing touch with, the kind of, the reason or the purpose, our machine was constructed for it to begin with? And I think that’s how I was thinking about this and there was something scary about the notion, the same thing you described that I have three kids of my own and I’m happily married, unlike the film, but the same thing you discovered about them being sort of like almost addicted to this, to these devices.

In a way that I don’t remember, experiencing as a child and certainly it’s also like this generation feels to me, like they’ve lost interest in social interaction in the way that we like to do it. Even when I give my kids a choice between they can watch something or enjoyed on their own individual tablet, or they can kind of gather around the TV, like we used to do, which is more of a social interaction.

There are a lot of times we prefer to get on their own, you know, which is another bizarre thing for me. So, absolutely was kind of a warning sign to me from at least raising the question. I was sure headed in the right direction.

Patrick Donovan: So, you’re a hundred percent right on that statement because my kids are in their own world and they’re a little bit 10 by 10 bedrooms and they just disappear.

And I’m going to get to that point in just a moment but what I got most out of this was Delroy Lindo’s character, Donald Stein too, was seeking something more than just the physical body. This also reminded me of Johnny Depp’s movie Transcendence, which I love and Ex Machina with Alica Vikander and the intellectual dialogue between Adam and Stein then Maria and Adam. She shows up with her theory about cells wanting to exceed their boundaries and humans exceeding theirs, and the whole universe thing, what a mind-blowing experience this was for me, man.

I mean, it’s like, have you ever seen the picture of the brains’ neurons and the universe, they look exactly alike. That one picture. Talk to me about that whole experience because it seemed like Maria transcended going from virtual to real and then she like threw Adam into a tizzy and said, ‘Well, I’m seeking real love. See you later.’ It’s like, what?

Guy Moshe: [Laughter] Because Maria yeah, exactly! Maria had the benefit of already coming from the virtual, so like, the intelligence side of it. She knows what’s available out there and what that feels like and for her, she appreciates the very thing that the role that Adam is part of has forgotten about, which is she just wants real experiences.

She wants to experience real sex and real love and real sort of like, even explicable emotion, something that is irrational, something that is, that is more, instinctive, you know, like animalistic, if you will, which I think is a good word for this particular discussion. To me, you asked me before and I kind of, I was talking about the name and kind of skipped past that one little part of your question, but the genesis for this entire idea, believe it or not came out of something entirely human. Right?

I was seeing around me in 2016, there were, if you will, I’m sure you know better when you’re a family man, you have a lot of different families that are in your social circle. And in one year, I think in 2015, I was trying to be surrounded by a lot of different couple of friends of ours that were going through a lot of difficult problems and divorces that kind of felt like the season of divorce if you will.

I was trying to understand what’s the link common as a writer. I was curious if there were any common threads in all of this and that’s what kind of led me on this rabbit hole. The first thing I found that was common to all these different relationships, different people, was that it was a lot of adults that felt at some point in their life that they haven’t fulfilled their individual promise or their you know, whatever it was that when they were younger, they thought they were going to accomplish. They suddenly reflected back on their lives and they were feeling like they’re trapped inside a larger kind of family cell that prevents them from being all that they can be.

I couldn’t stop thinking it has something to do with this technological revolution which is giving us an artificial sense of connectivity. What do I mean by that is that when you go home now and you go on these social networks or whatever you feel like there’s an infinite amount of people that you can suddenly meet and interact with.

Vis-a-vis a device and that creates in your mind this endless sensation there’s gotta be somebody out there that is more interesting or more fulfilling than the people I’m spending most of my days. I mean, whereas when we grew up before possible, like if you wanted to meet people on a larger social circle, you have to kind of do it physically.

You must go out there and socialize and that’s what I’m afraid is happening to us. It’s like we’re losing that real-life skill of socializing and we’re learning to socialize in a different way that is hidden, that it’s kind of like we’re behind in our computer or something.

So we no longer know how to deal with human beings face to face the way we might’ve known how to do even 30 years ago. I don’t know if that makes sense, but that’s kinda like my fear that kind of bleeds, I think, bled into this.

Patrick Donovan: No, it makes perfect sense and it leads me to my next question, which you’ve already partially answered it. The other thing I caught is that humans plug into the realm to escape the real world and yearn for something they don’t have in their real lives. Some connection with another person, whether real or not Adam’s supplanted, his wife with Maria but to find out Maria wanted something more, threw a monkey wrench into the whole avatar thing for Adam and then his wife wanted something more.

And then Delroy Lindo’s character, Donald Stein, wanted something in the very beginning by creating the Lithium X and then did he create the CHIP? And then the CHIP was like this whole thing. My whole existence is on – this – little – chip. It’s like, holy crap! You just blew my mind, man, because I program all day long and with the AI we’re doing. We’re trying to do with Social Enterprise Technology where instead of you just filling out forms on the web, you’re interacting live with the AI and people at the same time. Now it becomes social. You follow me?

Guy Moshe: [Laughter] Yeah, totally. A hundred percent, you know, like I’m following you and I also understand the urge and the idea behind creating that social experience because on one side of it, it is a more of a human experience than just engaging with a user interface.

Patrick Donovan: Right. So I totally understand when I first,

Guy Moshe: It’s scary.

Patrick Donovan: Oh, it’s scary beyond the imagination. It reminds me also of Chappie. Remember Chappie the movie with, Hugh Jackman. Chappie was about the use of AI police officers. These robots and suddenly, this one kid, it was made in South Africa. You gotta watch it.

Guy Moshe: I’ll look it up, but I can tell you, for instance, you know, when you look at you’ve mentioned the thing that everybody’s looking for something outside their own walls. The other thing interesting in, in questioning ourselves is what happens the day somebody gives you this kind of like, you know, magic stick and say, ‘Hey, what is your family?’

You can create a whole human intelligence or artificial intelligence that would feel just like a human being. If you could actually create from scratch, fantasy, are we even able theoretically to hit something like that? What is our standard? I think one of the things that guided me in this film, if you look at the journey that Adam goes through, I concluded we have kind of four versions of ourselves, basically each and every one of us.

So we have the person that we truly are kind of inside of us, but some of us will never find out who that person is.

Patrick Donovan: Exactly.

Guy Moshe: Or some of us continue looking for it. Some of us are escaping it, but you know, it’s not the person we’re putting out there. And then the second version of ourselves is the person we think we want to be. And that’s the person we’re kind of projecting to the society that we walk around in. Whatever mask we put on ourselves is the person that we think people want to see us as.

And then there’s a third version of us, which is the way people around us see ourselves, which is different than the first two.

And finally, the fourth version is the kind of person that we could have been, or like the potential, the potential that we have to be the best version of ourselves that, again, something we might never attain or even be aware of.

So if you look at Adam’s journey in the film, He actually goes through all of these four stations basically, and this kind of idea of self-discovery and I think for him, for his particular character, kind of the tragedy is that he’s refusing to accept that he might not be that special, but that’s not what is important here.

What’s important is your happiness. What’s important is kind of the living experience, not your place on the hierarchy, you know?

Patrick Donovan: While you were talking, I Googled Sophia, the world’s first human lifelike robot that is AI, and she chats with anchors on Today. I’ve got to send you a link and it’s Hanson Robotics, most advanced human life like robots, Sophia personifies our dreams for the future of AI. This is what you did. This is Maria! I mean…Holy frak man!  Unbelievable.

I want to talk to you after this. Don’t go away. Cause it’ll break. And I want to ask you something, but we’re getting down to 15 minutes, but go ahead and finish what you’re saying.

Guy Moshe: No, no. What I’m saying is, you know, what I was the one thing you’re identifying very correctly, it kind of warms my heart to be honest, is that, you know, people look at this kind of crazy wall that you supposedly created, but like, I feel that each and every one of the ideas that that is in the universe of LX is born out of our own universe.

So it was kind of very easy to do actually. I was just looking around at a bunch of topical buttons that I think are important and that are all kind of in my mind, connecting to the condition and trying to just imagine, with a hint of satire in there, like what would that, what could that be like in 25 or 30 years from now? That’s kinda how I went with it, but it’s all kind of rooted in reality, you know?

Patrick Donovan: Absolutely. Oh, it’s just, I mean, as Maria started talking to Adam and then Adam’s clone was playing the guitar and then Delroy Lindo’s character was gonna start out by, you know, doing what he was going to do I’m not going to spoil it. But then the two are sitting down, having drinks and talking about life, death, life again. Sounds like Spock in Star Trek III. It’s just an amazing, I’m a star Trek fan, but anyway.

Guy Moshe: Especially the older ones.

Patrick Donovan: Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You’re right on point with that. But we’re running out of time and I want to ask you one more thing. If you would, please talk to our audience because they’re going to be listening and reading the transcript and I’ll give you a copy of both.

What are some of the things that you’re perceiving that you can be doing down the road? And tell us more about some year great projects that are upcoming and, any festivals this is going to be going on to.

Guy Moshe: So basically, first of all, with LX, we, kinda, I think, I mean, we might do some, a small festival run in Europe, but because of what happened, we kinda decided to forsake the typical festival run and try and get the film out there because we felt it was very timely and we wanted people to get a chance to see, you know, close to this experience with, and it has a certain kind of weight to it.

The film is opening it’s starting to open up in, in Europe, already, despite it as well and some of the countries do, what’s supposed to be theatrical. There won’t be as available in musical theater, but it is happening, you know.

With respect to my next project, I have, actually three different, screenplays that I’ve written that are new in three very different genres and kind of budget ranges that are all, you know, thankfully moving forward at various stages. so I’m not sure which one of them will kind of be the, you know, the leading the race to kind of be the next actual film.

But one of them is, is my first full range of psychological thriller horror genre and it’s also a film that while in existing, within a genre has a lot of very topical big issues to discuss.

Patrick Donovan: Could you repeat the name?

Guy Moshe: The film is called ‘The Egg’, really kind of the beginning of the process, but we’re already talking to some financiers and people like that behind the scenes.

There’s another, project of mine called Carlos Must Die which is based on a true story from the eighties, of a kind of distant relative of mine that was a legendary Mossad agent, who goes on a very interesting hunt in Brazil for a very famous, Nazi criminal but this entire thing turns into something completely different and raises questions of, of our national identity. I’m originally, I was born and raised in Israel. This was the first time dealing with material that has with my own everything, so to speak and finally I’m working on a very big project, which hopes to be a, kind of a, a matrix, like a trilogy called the Zero Solution we’re kind of working on the script, to finalize it.

This is again, one thing that I’m doing for the first time in my life. I’m working with another writer and of course I’m attached to direct film that will hopefully be my next science fiction project. And that takes place in the, the, in, also in the, not so near future, but deals more with, with some of the political issues that we’re seeing kind of rising right now and are proactive in our society in the United States.

Patrick Donovan: That’s fantastic. I’m a filmmaker too. I actually was at Warner brothers back at the beginning of this year. Thank you very much for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure and an experience talking to you Guy. Thank you.

Guy Moshe: Thank you for having me.

Links:

Click to view Guy’s IMDB page here.