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While most found footage movies seem to be horror, that isn’t the only genre that likes to get in on the act, and there are a fair amount of science fiction-themed offerings as well, like Chronicle and Apollo 18. To the best of my knowledge, however, there hasn’t been a found footage sci-fi kids movie, until now that is. Relativity is set to release their kid-centric Earth to Echo later this summer, and it definitely fits into this category. Shortly after the announcement that the film will premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in mid-June, the studio has unveiled a quick new trailer and a handful of still photos.
At a few seconds over a minute, this trailer is on the shorter side of things, but does a good job of cramming in most of the important plot points. When a trio of friends, played by Teo Halm, Reese Hartwig, and a kid whose name is Astro, receive strange messages on their cell phones—because all kids need and have cell phones—they team up to investigate the mysterious goings on. A map sent to all of three of the boys leads them out to a remote spot in the desert—where are their parents in all of this, letting them be lured to remote locations by unknown parties? Once there they come across an adorable little being from space named Echo. Because Echo is from space, the government tries to hunt it down, and it is up to the friends hide it and help it get home.
Story wise and thematically anyway, Earth to Echo definitely owes a large debt to Steven Spielberg’s beloved classic E.T.. There are also notes of both Explorers and Super 8 as well.
The new photos come from Just Jared, and show a variety of the stages from the movie. First up is a shot of the three boys together, hanging out, being kids and shit.
Then there’s Echo. See, I told you he was adorable. He looks like Bubo the clockwork owl from the original Clash of the Titans, but way more cuddly.
When you become friends with a weird little alien robot thing, weird things are bound to happen, like bright beams of light shooting out of various items…
…or random junk starting to levitate and float up into the air. This is all par for the course when you hang out Echo. At least I’m assuming, since I’ve never met the little dude.
After Earth to Echo will screen at the LAFF on June 14 as part of a day of films for families, and after that it will open wide on July 2.
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