Actor and Filmmaker David Bianchi Previews His Web3 Series ‘RZR’

NFT

As Hollywood continues rolling out the pink carpet for awards season, one other pink carpet rolled out Monday evening for Web3 as actor and filmmaker David Bianchi invited celebrities and visitors to attend a public desk studying for his upcoming collection, “RZR.”

“I’m completely satisfied that throughout the subsequent three to 5 years, every part that we work together with from music, movie, mental property, even data techniques can be one way or the other tethered to a blockchain mechanism,” Bianchi says.

Desk reads are a signature a part of the movie and tv improvement course of, providing the solid, crew, and inventive crew an opportunity to listen to the script learn aloud. These reads sometimes occur behind closed doorways on a soundstage. Bianchi stated this was one thing he wished to alter.

Contained in the RZR Desk Learn

What’s uncommon about this [table read] is we’re making it public,” Bianchi informed Decrypt on the occasion. “Within the spirit of decentralization, we’re doing every part out within the open; I’m very assured within the materials, I’m very assured in all of my partnerships,” he stated.

“RZR” takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles, rife with neural implants, hacker tradition, and the underbelly of black market crime. Bianchi performs Grimm, a battle veteran and engineer who augments his physique to entry the net utilizing neural implants, much like the netrunners of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

“I all the time name it like ‘Black Mirror’ meets ‘Mr. Robotic’ with somewhat ‘Youngsters of Males’ sprinkled on high,” Bianchi stated.

Bianchi, whose earlier credit embrace Syfy’s “Resident Alien” and USA Community’s “Queen of the South,” says the genesis of “RZR” got here from a dialog with Sarah Buxton, the COO of Gala Movies, in the summertime of 2022. The manufacturing course of started quickly after, with Bianchi writing the script for the collection, placing a crew of creators collectively, and minting two RZR NFT drops.

Initially launched in 2019, Gala is devoted to Web3 video games and leisure. Gala Movie will produce and deal with distribution for RZR.

Constructing #film3 one step at a time on the #RZR desk learn 🎬@exertion3film #GalaFilm pic.twitter.com/ElE5ZMx4Fs

— Gala Movie (@GoGalaFilms) January 24, 2023

“We at Gala are proud to supply this undertaking with David, persevering with our mission of bringing inventive energy to artists, each established and rising,” Gala COO Sarah Buxton stated in an announcement despatched to Decrypt. “With this marking our first undertaking beneath Gala Movies, we’re breaking new floor in how Web3 leisure is offered to audiences and are excited for our future initiatives as nicely.”

Filming for “RZR” begins subsequent month, with a premiere date later this yr. Noelle Hubbell (“Don’t Fear Darling,” “Superstore”) will produce with Gala Movie, and CAA’s Claire Koonce (“Black Panther,” “Three Billboards Outdoors Ebbing, Missouri”) will function casting director.

“RZR” goals to be firmly grounded in blockchain expertise. Whereas digital foreign money will not be new to the cyberpunk style—“Cyberpunk 2077” or “Westworld,” for instance—RZR places digital belongings like NFTs and cryptocurrencies like Ethereum entrance and heart.

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, permit collectors to transparently present proof of possession for digital artwork, music, information, in-game belongings, private data, and extra. The previous few years have seen movie productions, musicians, and others use NFTs not solely to lift funds for his or her initiatives but in addition as a approach to join immediately with followers and provides them the power to personal a chunk of the movie or entry elements of the filming course of together with assembly administrators, cinematographers, and manufacturing designers.

“I believe the power to have an immutable expertise that may create shortage, and that may’t be manipulated, damaged or destroyed, is completely basic to the movie and leisure course of as a result of mental property has all the time been an issue,” he stated, including that blockchain allowed him to interrupt free from needing a facet hustle.

Bianchi says RZR is totally funded and that whereas the RZR NFTs have been offered to construct engagement and group across the undertaking, the undertaking was not leaning on the hope of preselling NFTs.

“Most each different impartial filmmaker within the house is promoting NFTs based mostly on a speculative undertaking,” he explains. “You promote a bunch of NFTs, then you need to hope that you just make an excellent film or an excellent present… you need to hope it is stable, you need to hope to have distribution.”

Bianchi says his undertaking is already greenlit and going into manufacturing, and assured to have distribution on Gala movie with a yet-to-be-named “main” streaming service at a later date.

“We’re providing one thing far more engaging and far more profitable to our NFT group and our potential holders,” he stated.

“I discovered that the blockchain and NFT group is extremely influential, they’re subtle, they’re tech savvy, they’re younger, they’re hungry, and so they’re involved in excessive artwork,” Bianchi added. “All these issues mixed, I believe, make an unimaginable, scrumptious gumbo for what blockchain potential is for movie.”