“Kirby Atkins' MOSLEY is amazing. A kick-ass film, it will move you to tears.”
Steve Kopian - UnseenFilms.net
With large and layered themes, MOSLEY is a timeless story, an epic tale of love and sacrifice.
MOSLEY: starring JOHN RHYS-DAVIES, RHYS DARBY, LUCY LAWLESS, and TEMUERA MORRISON
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY KIRBY ATKINS
LEVITY JONES
Levity Jones is a girl born without gravity. Now a middle school student, Levity and her family keep her disability a secret. She spends her days strapped to an electric wheel chair, her parents living in constant fear of her “falling up” into the sky.
Levity is unusually close with her quirky parents who have outfitted the house to accommodate her weightless condition. Levity’s mattress is fixed to the ceiling which is decorated with her elaborate paintings rivaling the Sistine Chapel.
It’s a sheltered life— but the Jones family knows that an inevitable separation must come. Levity’s parents must let their daughter go if she is ever going to fend for herself. With this in mind, they surprise her with brochures for a summer arts camp. It will be the first time Levity has been away from her parents and the protection they offer. Like any kid coming of age, Levity is nervous and eager to see what she can do— and be— out in the world.
But little does the Jones family know that an enemy waits at the camp, baiting Levity to come out into the open and using her to settle an old score. Through a series of dramatic events, the Jones family must learn to be brave— and “let go” in ways they’ve never imagined.
WATCH THE STORYBOARD TEASER BELOW!
A WALL IN THE WORLD
Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters. They’re sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice and are plentiful in North America and Australia.
A vole named SOD lives with his little vole community under a suburban garden in New South Wales. All his life Sod has dreamed of “Overworld” where legend tells of a bright ball of fire burning in the sky (the sun) making everything warm, toasty, and green.
But voles are naturally myopic, in sight and disposition. Sod’s enthusiasm for “Overworld” is met with rolling eyes by his vole community. They would rather Sod “stick to the program” and DIG— always digging, which is a vole’s primary vocation— digging more and more tunnels that loop and meet, tunnels created, demolished, and always created again. Sod does his share of the work but feels himself to be a very “un-vole-ish” vole.
Luckily Sod finds a kindred spirit in a new friend LEAFYTEETH, a vole who claims to have seen Overworld and the big bright “sun” that hangs in the sky. Leafyteeth offers to take Sod to Overworld but warns about the Death Trifecta. When voles refer to the Death Trifecta they’re talking about the three main things in Overworld voles fear most: floods, mowers, and especially CATS... one particular CAT— the cute and adorable abomination known as SIN-AMEN (Cinnamon, as the humans call her) who lives and hunts in the garden.
“Cute? How could she be cute?” Sod asks Leafyteeth.
“Oh, she’s cute!” Leafyteeth answers. “And good too, as far as cats go. Except for the fact that she’ll kill you. I guess that’s why they call her Sin Amen. She’s a whole lot of good and a whole lot of bad at the same time! Good for the giants who live in the house— bad for us I suppose. But what do you expect? She’s a cat! “
To achieve his dream of reaching Overworld Sod must break from his culture— and teach his friends the very underrated virtue of changing your mind...
MOSLEY (THE NOVEL)
In the thick of storyboarding and editing “Mosley," friends would often wander in my basement office and make suggestions. Sometimes it felt like an intervention. “You know,” they would say with strained expressions, "movies are just so expensive and hard to make. Why not make Mosley into a book?” The thought had occurred to me. Books are certainly cheaper than movies. They are not, however, easier to make.
The format of writing a book was liberating to me. A movie is storytelling distilled, boiled down, fat free. But books aren't afraid to linger. A book expects to be your companion for a few days and feels at ease to take it’s time. I very much enjoyed doing that with Mosley. If the characters compelled you in the film, then sit a spell and learn more about them. There is more to tell. And perhaps some roads lead to different places.
Publisher and release date to be announced…
