Producers Of Unicorn City Seek To Make Sundance Film Festival Their Real Life Utopia

Utah film makers have cut it close to meet the Sundance Film Festival 2011 submission deadline. Hopes are High for making Sundance 2011 their own personal utopia. Unicorn City promises more than just cheap laughs. End Quote

Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT (1888PressRelease) October 21, 2010 - With only minutes to spare, brothers Adrian and Brian Lefler (makers of the forthcoming feature length comedy film Unicorn City) submitted their cinematic offering to Robert Redford's world renowned Sundance Film Festival 2011.

Unicorn City is a creative labor of love that for over four years has been shared by the native Utah sibling duo Adrian Lefler (the film's co-writer and producer) and Brian Lefler (the films director). Both brothers share a passion for film that extends back to childhood. One might say it was inherited from their father Tom Lefler, a faculty member of the department of theater and film and Chair of the Film Committee at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. Tom Lefler is also one of the films producers.

"For the most part, Unicorn City is the story of Voss who is played by Devin McGinn (Bones, Wizards of Waverly Place, Universal Remote) is a die hard live role playing gamer who desperately needs a job. When a position opens for his dream job with a game company, to his surprise they ask him for evidence of his leadership qualities. Gulp! Now he has to prove himself. So what should he do; go organize a food drive? No way! He starts up his own Utopian society for gamers and proclaims himself the supreme leader. The only problem is that it's on public land and they really aren't supposed to there. We added some love, laughs, tears, action, crime, and an arch nemesis played by Jon Gries (Napolean Dynamite, Astronaut Farmer, Lost). But to round it all out, we threw in a really cool centaur" played by Utah Native Clint Vanderlinden.

Unicorn City was originally slated to be out of production in early 2011 and submitted for Sundance 2012, but the producers made the decision to submit for the coming year believing that whether the film is accepted or rejected, the film would find a final home with a major motion picture distributor before the 2012 Festival. According to principal Writer and Producer Adrian Lefler, "We figured that even if Sundance doesn't take Unicorn City this year, the film will be purchased for major distribution before Sundance 2012. We just didn't think we should wait around that long."

So what would being accepted to Sundance mean to Adrian Lefler? When asked, this was his response, "Getting into Sundance would be a dream. We worked this script for over four years. It would be a great validation to all of our hard work. I would be speechless if we did. Well maybe not speechless but we'd throw a ginormous party.

Although "Unicorn City" hasn't seen final edit, the Lefler Brothers have sent in 80% of the edited footage with 70% of the completed score including a statement of intent to finish before festival screening which according to Sundance Film Festival Submission guidelines, is completely acceptable.

Unicorn City was shot entirely on location in Utah on a shoe string budget. Funding for the film came from Digicert owner Ken Bretschneider. Bretschneider served as the films executive producer. A portion of the budget also came form a $30,000 grant from the Utah Film Commission as an incentive to shoot the film in Utah.

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