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Synopsis

“Fleeing from a catastrophic accident aboard the International Space Station, a lone Cosmonaut faces a haunting spectre from his country’s past. But is it all just in his mind?”

In 1958, Laika became the first animal launched into space. Witnessed by a young boy with dreams of following in her footsteps… she never returned. Decades later something has gone terribly wrong on the International Space Station and now, Russian Cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, struggles to regain control of his tumbling escape pod. Houston has picked him up on radar and Ground Control endeavours to bring him into a stable orbit. However, it soon becomes clear they are dealing with more than just a broken spacecraft, but a broken pilot too. Unresponsive to basic commands, a confession of dead crewmates and the belief he is being followed, Oleg slowly loses his mind to fear. An increasingly exasperated mission controller decides to take matters into her own hands and bring Oleg back down to Earth, but this only confirms Olegs’ worst fears. A mysterious, antiquated looking craft docks with Olegs’ returning with it a nation’s “sacrificial lamb”.

Filled with action, intense emotions and a horror twist, Laika brings the past and future of space travel head to head. A visually ambitious short film calling back to classic science fiction blockbusters such as 2001: A space odyssey, Apollo 13, and Alien, to give a supernatural, action packed take on a true story.

Cast

Anton Saunders is a British actor best known for portraying Godric in The Last Kingdom, Champmathieu in Les Miserables and Henry Madsen in the Emmy nominated Luther. He has recently played opposite Oscar winner Sam Rockwell in the Action Comedy, BLUE IGUANA. Anton won Best Actor award at the British Arrows for 'Helpless'.

Róisín Monaghan was born and raised in Co.Sligo on the west coast of Ireland and has dual US citizenship. She grew up in the theatre and is a classically trained actress. She studied at the Gaiety School of Acting (Dublin), RADA (London) and The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (NYC). She is both a Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity member.

Profile

ADAM FAIR

WRITER/DIRECTOR

Adam has worked as a VFX and CG artist for 15 years working for clients such as Sony Entertainment. Laika is Adam's first film as Writer and Director and he played a large role in crafting the look and design of the film, as well as taking on a large portion of the vfx. Hopefully, Laika will be the first of many more films from Adam, exploring visually compelling genres.

JOHN SANDERSON

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

John Sanderson runs PitStop productions, a multi award winning audio production company. This film is his first step into film production, utilising the experience and skills of the team that work with him. Pitstop has multiple studios throughout the world and has an excellent reputation in producing award winning, quality audio in the games industry. It is hoped that Laika will be a first step into achieving the same thing in the medium of film.

KAREN TAYLOR

CO-PRODUCER

Karen has extensive experience in production and in the past few years took a leap of faith to produce her own films. As a filmmaker she is drawn to illuminating aspects of life that are often concealed from us, from the esoteric & suppressed knowledge to contemporary mainstream media manipulation and social engineering. Any project Karen writes or produces has an element of humanitarianism, socially relevant films for the greater good all wrapped up in excellent entertainment.

ALISTAIR KERLEY

COMPOSER

Alistair Kerley has composed the original score to Laika, bringing all the weight and magnitude of a Hollywood blockbuster to this 8 minute short. Kerley begun working with pitstop in 2018 and has since composed and orchestrated the music for video game projects such as “The Persistence” (Firesprite, 2019) and more recently, the sci-fi epic “Beyond a Steel Sky” (Revolution Software, 2020) as well as having worked on film projects such as Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (Warner Bro’s, 2019).

Quotes

“An original story based on a real historical event, it was the horror element that added the intensity and the thing that made the script enticing to me. The overall filming experience was very simple in a way, as it really is all CGI, it relies heavily on the imagination, it’s just you and a very small filming crew, all trying to create the atmosphere of being in a spaceship.”

ANTON SAUNDERS (OLEG)