EXCLUSIVE: Jessie T. Usher (The Boys, Smile), Brett Gelman (Wild Things), Taye Diggs (His, Hers, Ours), Torrey Lawrence (Bring the Law) and Brooke Anne Smith (Tyler Perry’s Too Close to Home) are set to star in Syndetic, a psychological sci-fi thriller that recently wrapped production in Los Angeles. Syndetic will mark the directorial debut of Blake Linder.
Written by Jayme LaForest, Syndetic centers on Richard Thompson (Lawrence), a former Marine and network administrator whose unemployment, addiction, and estrangement from his two sons leave him vulnerable to an unusual offer from Neural Hive. There, the disarmingly genial Dr. Carnegie (Gelman) recruits Richard into an experimental program that uses human brains as individual nodes within a distributed computing network designed to harness the mind’s capacity for prediction and pattern recognition.
As Richard begins experiencing violent images and unfamiliar memories that undermine his sense of identity and reality, he becomes increasingly consumed by Kylie O’Reilly (Smith), a ubiquitous motivational media personality whose relentless optimism takes on a more invasive and unsettling significance. Usher and Diggs play Detectives Clearwater and Lane, respectively, investigators attempting to reconstruct the truth from Richard’s fragmented account while determining whether his apparent delusions may point to something real.
Through Richard’s unraveling perspective, the film explores the commodification of human experience, economic desperation, and the increasingly unstable boundary between consciousness and technology.
“I’ve always been drawn to stories that leave audiences asking difficult questions, and Syndetic does exactly that,” said Linder. “I wanted to blend grounded suspense with psychological horror to explore where our relationship with technology could lead if we stop questioning the systems we choose to trust.”
Ryan Broomberg served as cinematographer. LaForest is producing through Fall Risk Entertainment, with Jason Short producing through Short Films, alongside Linder Productions.
Usher is represented by Independent Artists Group and Luber Roklin Entertainment. Gelman is represented by Creative Artists Agency, Entertainment 360 and Schreck Rose Dapello. Diggs is represented by Independent Artists Group and Down Deep Productions. Lawrence is represented by Media Artists Group and Egg Hunt Entertainment. Smith is represented by Joseph Le Talent Agency. LaForest is represented by Pacitti Law Firm.
