Not even a thunderstorm can dampen the excitement for the Web3 dystopian series RZR. On a rainy Thursday night, an intimate group of fans gathered for a private screening of David Bianchi’s new thriller at the Los Angeles offices of Metaverse game developer The Sandbox.
The eight-part series from Bianchi’s Exertion3 Films and Gala Film will begin streaming on the Gala streaming platform in April.
RZR revolves around the protagonist Grimm. A hacker haunted by his past as a soldier in a nuclear war, Grim is determined not only to survive in a dark future version of Los Angeles, but to use cutting-edge neurotechnology and biohacking to connect his brain directly to the Internet.
I grew up on books like William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, and role-playing games like Shadowrun and Cyberpunk, so it was exciting to see RZR come to life. It reminded me of a dystopian show on the SyFy channel.
Bianchi said Elon Musk’s Neuralink was an inspiration to him, and RZR deals heavily with emerging technologies such as NFTs, blockchain, cryptocurrency, AI and neurotechnology.
“It’s come full circle. (decryption) was at the reading table last year and has seen us from our earliest NFT collections all the way back to October 2022,” he said. decryption At the screening. “Now we are in March 2024, and Episode 1 will be released by Gala Film on April 14, 2024.”
As the crowd mingled, RZR creator and star David Bianchi moved around the room, meeting guests, shaking hands and giving hugs. Surprisingly, Bianchi announced that not one, but two episodes of the series would be played that night. It streamed ad-free and each episode was approximately 15 minutes long.
The screening began with a behind-the-scenes video detailing the making of the series, its journey from script to screen, and the first episode. Silence filled the room as RZR’s cyberpunk world came to life on the screen. At the end of each episode, the audience applauded.
While I thought RZR was very well done and entertaining, my one complaint would be that the episodes aren’t any longer, and I look forward to seeing an edited, full-length 120-minute movie version.
our take
RZR starts off with a bang, with a scene where Bianchi’s Grimm attempts to punch a hole in the head. I’ll spare you the gory details. The show opened six months later and the paintings survived the experiment.
RZR does a fantastic job of conveying a world full of technological innovation with minimal special effects. For example, in Bianchi’s opening scene, he tells the audience that the drill he used was real and not CG.
Another scene shows the Los Angeles skyline filled with drones delivering packages. These aren’t the futuristic Cyberpunk 2077 type drones, but rather the practical drones you see in Amazon packages today. RZR’s Los Angeles feels alive, and every character fits seamlessly into the scene. Filmed in Los Angeles, the show leaves the city decidedly modern and creates a setting for the day after tomorrow.
Grimm, a true cryptocurrency native, also had a Bitcoin tracker on display. Bitcoiners will be happy to know that Bitcoin is worth over $115,000 in the world of RZR.
The world of cryptocurrency is definitely a part of RZR. Bitcoin-themed posters, an NFT gallery, and images of Satoshi Nakamoto appear in various scenes. In a Q&A after the screening, Bianchi noted that all of the show’s digital and physical artwork was created by actual Web3 artists.
Bianchi appears in almost every scene and is especially charming when Grimm has a drug-filled episode, such as at the beginning of Episode 2. No spoilers, but we see a lot of Bianchi.
Bianchi said the RZR would be used in Black Mirror and Mr. Compared to a cross between Robot. The look of the show is reminiscent of classic sci-fi shows like Level 9, Painkiller Jane, Sanctuary, Deadly Class, and Jessica Alba’s Dark Angel.
As the virtual reality environment becomes more stylized, you get the feeling that this is what Meta and others are trying to do.
The world of RZR is like hoping Web3 conferences are like real life. For now, we’ll just have to settle for the Hollywood version.
Hollywood meets Web3
“This is the first title from Gala Films. “This is unprecedented,” he said. “We have a Web3 company that partners exclusively with Hollywood to produce triple-A level cinematic content that will run natively across the full node ecosystem of Gala Film Layer 1.”
Web3 entertainment giant Gala includes Gala Games, Gala Film, and Gala Music on the Ethereum blockchain using the native GALA token.
“What’s interesting about what Gala is doing is that they make watches and create models,” Bianchi said. “So for the first time in the history of global cinema, audiences will be able to collect digital collectibles and, depending on the speed of the network, have higher reward potential depending on what they have.”
Gala says fans can own digital footage broken into pieces that appear on their profiles. Collecting all shards increases rewards, encourages support and promotion of related shows, and highlights the origins of the scene and the decentralization of the blockchain.
“I am convinced that blockchain technology will become the core of all information and intellectual property systems, just as JavaScript is the core of the ticket mechanism.”
In conjunction with RZR, Gala Film is introducing Mystery Boxes as a way for fans to engage with the RZR universe. Bianchi said each box unlocks exclusive content, creating a unique and interactive experience.
diversity in hollywood
Actors joining Bianchi at RZR include American Beauty’s Mena Suvari, Barry’s Christopher Marquette, voice actor Mimi Davila, film and Los Angeles icon Danny Trejo, Sons of Anarchy and Mayans MC’s Emilio Rivera and Richard Cabral.
“I created a diverse cast,” Bianchi said. “I have 58 speaking roles, and only six of them are white. Because the role I made looks a lighter brown.
“It is very important to me because today I become a good ancestor,” he continued. “I remember Mario van Peebles, I remember Melvin van Peebles, I remember all the great people who showed me that it was possible, and I lead by example because I want to show everyone else that it is possible.”
Bianchi also highlighted his producing partner Noelle Hubbell, who produced 45 episodes of Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with RZR.
“By bringing all the communities together, you can create something really cool at a low cost, as well as something great and interesting,” Bianchi said.
In a Q&A session following the screening, Bianchi revealed that a campaign has been launched to have RZR considered for the 2024 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Drama.
A.I
RZR covers a variety of topics including hacker culture, black markets, drug use, PTSD, violence, and crime. This dystopian soup includes artificial intelligence. Last year, the threat of generative AI in Hollywood led SAG-AFTRA and the WGA to go on strike for several months.
“Artificial intelligence and synthetic analogues are here and will always be here,” Bianchi said. “People, mainly A-list stars, will benefit because they can license their synthetic personalities.”
Bianchi said he is optimistic about artificial intelligence and has used the technology for RZR, but he also emphasized the importance of controlling and protecting artificial intelligence, noting the rise in AI-generated deepfakes and impersonations.
“So the disruption is going to grow and it will be up to those of us at the cutting edge of technology to figure out how to integrate these workflows into our ecosystem so that we don’t lose out to the competition,” he said. . “My competition is incredibly creative, and they’re 18 years old.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
