Los Angeles, CA - Many people know the work of Phillip K. Dick (“Blade Runner” “Total Recall”), but in recent years interest in his short stories have become increasingly popular. When director Shahab Zargari and his brother writer Shahram Zargari started searching for an intriguing story to base their new short film, sparks flew. What they found was a “lost” gem. The Crystal Crypt was first published in the January 1952 edition of Planet Stories magazine. The setting in the distant future, with Earth and Mars on the verge of war and the last spaceship to leave Mars for Earth is suddenly stopped by Martian soldiers in search of three saboteurs who have destroyed a Martian city. The story has a surprising conclusion, as is true with many of Dick’s most popular novels.

In independent filmmaking, the question is always: how can we get funding? But with a Sci-Fi genre film, the second question is how to make a journey through outer space look real, like Star Trek or Star Wars.

“If your concept is to create, let’s say, a remake of the Star Wars trilogy then you are so far past the short film it’s not even funny and lets not forget the problems with budgeting,” said director Shahab Zargari. “Try and come up with a concept that is simple and uses only a few locations with little to no special effects. As far as coming up with the actual story, keep it true to your vision.”

The brothers turned to Kickstarter, the popular crowd-funding website, but they are no strangers to production. They also enlisted producer Zeus Zamani, whom worked with them on the most recent promotional video for Luxor Las Vegas Casino. The commercial ended up winning a total of five Silver Awards at the 2012 Davey Awards, including a trophy for the Videography & Cinematography category.

“The wonderful world of short filmmaking may be just the place for you to get started in the world of movie making,” states Zargari. “We’re only a few months away from wrapping this project up, and I feel that I can share my thoughts on the subject. People should realize that independent filmmaking is less about ‘me’ and more about ‘we’.”

“I've been a Sci-fi nerd my entire life. I gravitated toward Philip K. Dick. He's one of my favorite authors in the genre. As soon as I saw Star Wars in the movie theaters as a little kid, I instantly knew that making movies was something I was passionate about,” says Zargari “I now have the confidence and the chops to start my directing career and I must succeed.”

The Kickstarter campaign launches February 1, 2013, and rewards for backers include one-of-a-kind original props and credit in the film.

About director Shahab Zargari:

Shahab Zargari has published two photography books, one art anthology and a science fiction novel, blog posts, as well as creative copy for national and regional ad campaigns. Editing film and video for sketch comedy, music videos, national TV commercials and other film projects is his forte, but he has stepped into the role of Director for the first time on the upcoming short film, Phillip K. Dick’s The Crystal Crypt.

About author Phillip K. Dick:

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific author who was first published in 1952. His first sale was the short story "Roog." His first novel, "Solar Lottery," appeared in 1955. Dick produced an astonishing amount of material during the 1950s and 1960s, writing and selling nearly a hundred short stories and some two dozen or so novels during this period, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Time Out Of Joint," " His most well-known works are Blade Runner (1982) from his "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" upon which the film was based, starring Harrison Ford. Shortly before the film premiered, however, he died of a heart attack at the age of 53. Since his death, several other films have been adapted from his works including Total Recall (1990) and several unpublished novels have been published posthumously.

Download the short story, The Crystal Crypt, for free from the Gutenberg Project:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28698

http://www.thinkspeak.org/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thegc4/the-crystal-crypt-based-on-a-short-story-by-philip