www.spaceboymovie.com

Spaceboy is director Ransom Riggs' graduate thesis for the University of Southern California's MFA film and television production program. Among the first films to pioneer true Hi-Definition production and post-production at USC, its ambitious scope and compelling story attracted a stellar crew, including Emmy-winning production designer Richard Lewis and casting director Robert McGee (The Virgin Suicides). In addition, several companies generously donated their time and talents to the project, including VFX house Framework (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Red Dragon) and design team Shoolery Design (Lord of the Rings, Saw). Spaceboy is currently being submitted to film festivals around the world.

Fifteen-year-old Max is an intense, isolated kid whose one true passion is something no one he knows can relate to: the search for UFOs. Dubbed "Spaceboy" by his classmates and his vain older brother Percy, alienated Max withdraws almost completely into the comfortable escapism of his obsession. So when he experiences a Close Encounter after a particularly traumatizing day at school, even Max has to wonder: is he really making Contact, or is it just a manifestation of his deep need to belong?

Just when he's beginning to suspect he's not alone in the universe, however, something even stranger happens: his brother's cool, punky girlfriend, Carrie, takes an interest in him. In the end, Max finds himself torn between two worlds -- the alien one into which he's always longed to escape and the human which, thanks to Carrie, seems to be within reach for the first time.

Spaceboy will capture the strangeness of a boy caught between two worlds, suspended in a kind of twilight zone between Earth and space, childhood and adulthood, sleep and waking. Max feels like an alien in that most normalized of landscapes -- American suburbia -- which the film will plumb for all the strangeness that lies subtly below its polished surface.

That said, Spaceboy intends to invest suburbia with an alienness more foreboding than what you'd find on the surface of Mars itself, and to suggest that there is another way of looking at the world which surrounds us, one which pierces through what seems normal to find what is strange.

Born in Bosnia, Arman Zajic was only five when war broke out in his country. To escape the fighting, his family moved to Germany and eventually settled in the United States. At the age of eight, speaking no English, Arman quickly adapted to American life and discovered his twin passions: soccer and acting. He joined Barbizon school for acting and modeling in San Francisco and competed in the International Modeling Talent Association, winning several awards. Soon thereafter he secured a talent manager and officially began pursuing his acting career, moving to Los Angeles in early 2004. Since then, Arman has been the subject of a documentary chronicling his dream of becoming an actor, From Battlefield to Boxoffice, and landed a co-starring role in The Toast, an improv-based short helmed by director Kevin McDermott now making the rounds on the festival circuit. He is also featured in Universal Pictures' Jarhead, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx.

Michelle began her career at an early age in Dallas-Fort worth performing in several major theatrical productions and national commercials. Since working in Spaceboy, Michelle has been in multiple commercials, on television in CSI: Miami and Crossing Jordan, and on the big screen in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous with Sandra Bullock, and the new film Work, still in post-production. Michelle will be playing Patty Duke and David Ogden's Stier's daughter Kaye Frosbisher in the upcoming film Together Again for the First Time, and Ravyn in the psychological thriller/drama Sublime.

Chris Emerson has appeared on many television shows including CBS's The District, JAG on NBC, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and has a recurring role on the WB's Gilmore Girls. He received the Theatre Coalition's "Best Director" award for his theatrical production of Unspoken Words. Chris is actively doing his part to fight the war on terror by being the best actor he can, because bad acting means the terrorists win.

Max - Arman Zajic
Carrie - Michelle Page
Percy - Chris Emerson
Mr. Burrows - Richard Tanner
Trent - Austin Hayden
Trina - Bridget Cohen
The Coach - Jeff Blumberg
Sarcastic Indie Kid - Dustin Sussman
Alternative Girl - Caitlin Somers
Lead bully - Adam Rosenberg
Sidekick - David Zimbeck