Irish Film: Striking proof of concept teaser for Conor Maloney’s sci-fi epic Ayamé

Irish director Conor Maloney has released a 5 minute proof of concept piece for a new science fiction film he is working on called Ayamé. As impressive as this is, what is even more impressive is that he has recruited veteran British thespian John Hurt to provide the narration.

Ayamé is set in the near future. The story revolves around a rescue mission on what was thought to be an uninhabited planet. An impending disaster looms. Facing total extinction, a military operation turns to the stars in order to relocate the entire human race. During the exodus, one man is sent to rescue his former comrade after she mysteriously disappears while executing a covert operation off world.

Known primarily for his commercial and music video work, Conor’s previous short, Blink, was selected for the Montreal World Film Festival. Shot by acclaimed irish cinematographer Piers McGrail (Glassland) on a Red One, Ayamé was filmed over three days at Ardmore Studios, with finishing touches, visual effects added by Conor and his team in post-production, assisted by Windmill Lane.

Ayamé is produced by Jason Foran and Tony Callaly for Cashmere Media and Jang Productions. In addition to Hurt the cast includes actress Laura Graham. Writers are Steven and Alan Tully, with suit design by Graeme Bird and practical effects by Brendan Byrne.

Earlier this year director Ruairi Robinson went down a similar route, releasing a proof of concept for his sci-fi film Leviathan. That netted him a deal with Simon Kinberg and Neil Blomkamp at Fox.

[quote title=”Conor Maloney – Director”]The initial idea was far too big to take on so we decided to concentrate on just the prologue, to act as an introduction to the world of Ayamé. Hopefully the future for Ayamé is to be able to elaborate.[/quote]

[quote title=”Jason Foran – Producer”]There’s a great sense of pride when you can attach yourself to a project like this, to be able to assemble such a skilled and talented team with very little budget to work with is one of things that was worth doing.[/quote]

[quote title=”Laura Graham – Actress”]What struck me about the project was the concept art and the story. It was something I’ve never seen before and I find sci-fi is quite unusual in Ireland.[/quote]

As well as the proof of concept, Maloney has also released a Behind the Scenes featurette, which can be watched below: