Cosmic Sci-Fi Film ‘The Paragon’ Trailer – Made on Shoestring Budget
by Alex Billington
August 9, 2024
Source: YouTube
“You will find the paragon for me!” Doppelgänger Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for a film called The Paragon, made by New Zealand filmmaker Michael Duignan. This wacky lo-fi sci-fi thriller originally premiered at the 2023 New Zealand Film Festival last year, and is getting a theatrical debut in the US this fall. It was shot over 13 days in Auckland, New Zealand on a budget of around $15,000 in US dollars. That’s a considerably tiny budget! Yet this still looks pretty damn good. The victim of a hit and run learns how to be psychic so he can find the car that hit him and take revenge on the driver. Everything converges towards the singularity in Michael Duignan’s feature film debut, a “hilarious rift in space-time.” Starring Benedict Wall, Florence Noble, Jessica Grace Smith, & Jonny Brugh. Reviews say it “gives its all, embracing its DIY nature to deliver a light and breezy sci-fi comedy, and what it lacks [from the] budget it more than compensates for in low-key charm.” If you’re into this kind of spunky, clever DIY filmmaking – check it out.
Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Michael Duignan’s The Paragon, from YouTube (via TFS):
Do you want to see the unseen? Dutch (Benedict Wall) may look like just another defeated and washed-up loser, but behind his pissed-off exterior lurks a hyperdimensional being of exceptional promise. His wife left him, his career as a tennis coach is floundering, and he would give anything to find the driver of the silver Toyota Corolla who hit him & drove off a year ago – the event that initiated his downward spiral. Enter Lyra (Florence Noble), a witchy disciplinarian who offers to help Dutch unleash his latent psychic powers and break free from the illusion of linear time. After a crash course in telelocation and astral projection, the unlikely psionic prodigy is ready for his quest of cosmic revenge, but Lyra has other plans: she needs Dutch’s help to find a mysterious crystal known as the Paragon before it falls into the hands of her evil brother Haxan (Jonny Brugh) & his mind slaves. Everything converges towards the singularity…
The Paragon is both written and directed by New Zealand indie filmmaker Michael Duignan, making his first feature after directing numerous TV series including “The Blue Rose”, “Go Girls”, “Agent Anna”, “Power Rangers Dino Charge”, “Power Rangers Ninja Steel”, & “Filthy Rich” previously. Produced by Lissy Turner. This initially premiered at the 2023 New Zealand Film Festival last year, and it already opened in NZ last October. It also just played at this year’s Sydney Film Festival & Fantasia Film Festival. Doppelgänger will debut The Paragon in select US theaters starting September 6th, 2024 this fall. Anyone curious about it?
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