NEW YORK SCRIBES VISIT ARIZONA VORTEX

(PRWEB) February 12, 2003

NEW YORK – Two New York screenwriters have scribbed the first ever feature film project to be based around the so-called “vortex,” or pocket of electromagnetic energy located in and around the many Red Rock canyons of Sedona, Arizona; each of the several vortexes is believed to be a spiritual and healing energy center by the New Age community. The script is a quarterfinalist in this year’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Nicholl Fellowship.

Entitled “Vortex”, the science fiction thriller centers on Rockwell, an aging billionaire in the Howard Hughes mold. He meets a young Native American woman who has the ability to transform a vortex into a virtual fountain of youth. Things go awry when Rockwell’s own corporation sets out to exploit her.

The script, which opens with a road trip through Route 66, is set entirely in Arizona and features Sedona, Phoenix and the mining ghost town of Jerome. Borrowing freely from Native American mysticism and New Age philosophy, Vortex encompasses everything from tribal ghost dances and healing circles to cryogenics, astral projection and shamanism.

“We tried to take existing shamanic beliefs about non-ordinary reality and use it as a framework for an out-there thriller,” said producer and co-writer Neil Alumkal.

“There’s definitely a science to the fiction of Vortex. Still, it’s not without its ironies. It’s not exactly an action comedy, but there’s more than the occasional wink.” added co-writer Alejandro Branger.

No stranger to movie sets, Sedona was the backdrop to nearly 80 spaghetti westerns filmed there during the 1940s and 50s, including John Wayne’s "Angel and the Badman".

Alumkal and Branger attended New York University’s undergraduate film program where the two were college roommates. Alumkal has since written and produced the romantic comedy "Nick and Jane", which was released in movie theaters by Lions Gate Films. Alumkal is also filming a modern day adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "A Gentle Creature", set in Manhattan, with Miravista Films. Branger wrote the magic realist themed screenplay "Aguardiente (Fire Water)", which was recently optioned.

For more information contact Neil Alumkal,

Interstate Films, (212) 888-1487 or e-mail alexmook388@cs.com

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