SYNOPSIS

In The KAOS Brief, a secret group known as KAOS releases hacked footage filmed by four high school seniors, aspiring vlogger Skylar, his twin sister Dakota, and their boyfriends, Corey and Tren. In it, the footage reveals their terrifying ordeal after witnessing mysterious lights in the sky on a camping trip. Even after they return to their quiet suburban home, the teenagers are plagued by strange and unnerving events that can only be explained as being tied to Skyler's uploading of their camping footage to his video channel. Tensions rise as they struggle to figure out what is happening and how to escape their seemingly all-knowing predators as the movie races to its climactic and shocking end. FILM SITE: LINK

TRAILER: LINK

PRODUCTION NOTES Flying Monkey Media presents The KAOS Brief, a first person sci-fi thriller directed by JP Mandarino. Produced by Edward Singletary, Jr., Randall Walk, JP Mandarino. The film stars Drew Lipson (Murder Among Friends) who though probably familiar for his extensive commercial work, caused quite a stir appearing in the recent Giorgio Moroder video featuring Sia, Déjà Vu. Charlie Morgan Patton (Alongside Night) gives a tough yet vulnerable performance as his twin sister, Dakota. Rounding out the cast as the twins’ respective boyfriends, are Marco DelVecchio (Crazy Lake, Snapped: Killer Couples) and Akanimo Eyo (Isle of the Dead). Director JP Mandarino has always been obsessed with UFO’s and the notion of being visited by aliens. “As a kid my favorite movies were E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Last Starfighter, and of course, Aliens.” He also wondered if aliens were already here, does the government know, how is that information controlled, and if we are being experimented on, abducted, etc. “I love a good conspiracy theory of course! The KAOS Brief is my first foray into the debate.”

So, with the opportunity to write and direct his first feature film, Mandarino says he chose to make The KAOS Brief “because there was a compelling story percolating in my mind about what would happen if a vlogger posted about a seemingly innocuous event that then gets out of hand and thrusts him and the people he cares about into a perilous situation.” A fan of the first person thriller genre, he also knew that one criticism leveled at these types of films is that once the terror starts, audience members often wonder why the characters continue filming themselves. “I loved the motivation for the film to be capturing content for the vlog,“ he says, “And since it was about a vlogger, lead character Skylar could address the audience directly.” Another mainstay of the first person thriller genre is the text that usually appears at the beginning and end to set up context for what the audience is watching and why. “I felt that technique was overused,” Mandarino says, “I thought it would be much more interesting and of the moment if what the audience was watching was ‘hacked’ footage and to incorporate the hacktivist into the story subtly.” “We got incredibly lucky with our young cast” says Producer Edward Singletary, Jr., who also served as the casting director for the film. “Not only are they exceptionally good looking, but they’re all exceptional actors. I’ve heard a lot of people who are fans of this genre of films say that, even if the movie is scary, often times the acting is not so great. Not only did we look at a lot of people to get just the right group so you really felt they are friends, we had the added challenge that the two leads, Skylar and his sister, Dakota, are twins!”

JP MANDARINO | PRODUCER, WRITER, DIRECTOR

JP Mandarino has been working in various aspects of film production for over 20 years. Starting in 1993 in New York, while an undergrad film student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he began as a production assistant on low budget features and music videos. He worked on Julie Taymor’s first feature, Fool’s Fire, and the Sundance award-winning Ruby in Paradise. After graduating, JP continued to work in film production doing commercials, short films, industrials, and photo shoots while working his way up the ladder from PA to Producer and finally as Executive Producer of his own production company, Flying Monkey Media. JP never lost his desire to direct features and just completed post on his first movie, The KAOS Brief. He continues to produce commercials, music videos, PSAs, and short films. He has produced music videos for such artists as Wyclef Jean, OutKast, KC and JoJo, Madonna, Anastasia, Master P, and Nate Dogg and Warren G, and commercials for Levi’s, Conair, Ray Ban, Burger King, Intel, Lee Jeans, Universal Studios, and McDonald's. EDWARD SINGLETARY, Jr. | PRODUCER Actor/producer Edward Singletary, Jr., is an award-winning film, commercial and branded content producer with over twenty years experience developing and delivering content for companies such as Roku, Best Buy and TCL. He has specialized in raising capital for feature film and web content, forming strategic partnerships with production entities in Indonesia, the EU, and the Middle East. In addition to The Kaos Brief, his feature film producing credits include Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (in which he also co-starred) which was released theatrically in the US, the UK and Germany and was subsequently featured on Netflix. He produced the award-winning short films Delphinium: A Childhood Portrait of Derek Jarman, which was acquired by the British Film Institute for preservation in the National Film Archive and Adam, which received the Best Drama Short Film award at the New York City International Film Festival. Edward also produced Sunday Afternoons, starring Paul Dooley and The Marionettes. As an actor, Edward co-starred in the feature film Thank You, Good Night, with Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Sally Kirkland (Anna), and in various national commercial campaigns, including one directed by Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Batman Forever) and another co-starring Goldie Hawn. Edward's current project in development is the Italian thriller The Cave's Mouth, scheduled to shoot in 2017.

RANDALL WALK | PRODUCER Prior to The Kaos Brief, Randall Walk most recently produced the feature films Absent (shot in Moldova in the former USSR) and Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean. Joshua Tree played at over sixty film festivals worldwide and was released theatrically in the United States, Germany, and the UK and was later released on Netflix. Absent had its world premiere in early 2016 and is currently playing US and international festivals. In addition to the genre feature Scab, he produced the 30-minute short film Jumbo Girl, shot by two-time Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan) and starring Bruno Gunn (Brutus in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and James Denton (Desperate Housewives). Jumbo Girl premiered at LA Shorts Fest at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood, and Randall was nominated for an IndieProducer Award. Randall studied film at Columbia College in Chicago, where he collaborated with D.P. Mauro Fiore (Avatar). He served as the storyboard artist for Janusz Kaminski's directorial debut, Lost Souls, starring Wynona Ryder and Ben Chaplin. Randall is currently in preproduction on several features, including the thriller The Cave's Mouth written and directed by Alexa Coblentz and to be shot in 2017 on Italy's Apulian coast.

FOR ALL BOOKING AND PRESS INQUIRIES, CONTACT JMANDARION@MAC.COM