Love is in the air for this very special Valentine’s Day pitch; 16mm, a soft reboot of the Nic Cage snuff film. Look, is anyone excited by the continuation of the 8mm story? No. But, Joaquin Phoenix just won an Oscar, and we feel the time is right to capitalize on his fame by bringing Max California back to the big screen. But, didn’t Joaquin’s character die in 8mm you say? To which we’d reply, “Why are you so invested in a mildly-arousing snuff film from 20 years ago?” Then, we’d probably realize you were right and suggest one of two options; ignore Max’s death like in Roseanne, Mad About You, Terminator: Dark Fate OR we bring Max back as a hologram sidekick for Nic to riff off of. Honestly, we can’t see a downside with either approach so in a Shyamalan-ian twist we’re going to go with BOTH options. Confused? We’ll then you clearly haven’t seen 8mm a film so confusing that the sequel needs to be equally confounding.
Since the original 8mm, the ability to determine a fake film has only grown harder. When a mysterious tape arrives at Tom Welles home showing Max California alive it’s up to PI Welles to determine if the film is real or an elaborate deepfake hoax. Thanks to digital technology, this time there just might be things you can unsee.