By M.Christian

YNOT – While it seems like pretty much anything and everything in so-called geek culture, from superheroes to video games, has been turned into adult entertainment, the producers of the science fiction film Horizon are shooting a lot higher: respectability … or a certain amount of it.

Wicked Pictures, producers of Horizon, picked AVN Award-winner Sam Hain to helm the project, the first Wicked title shot with Red Epic cameras.

Described as “an imaginative foray into the realm of big-budget, original sci-fi,” the movie is “a high-tech step into the year 2085. Horizon unfolds as a civilization of extraterrestrial origin has invaded Earth. Of the planet’s nine billion inhabitants, approximately one third have been killed and nearly two billion more have been evacuated to a military base dug into the core of Mercury. Of the four billion humans who remain on Earth, none are expected to survive the next 48 hours.

“Taking a last stand against the alien invasion, one Marine battalion remains on the surface. But they are in retreat, desperately attempting to reach the safety of the space cruiser Horizon, when events occur which place the future of the Earth and all its remaining inhabitants in peril….

“Horizon. It’s high noon at the end of the universe.”

The film is gaining interesting pre-release press in the mainstream as much for what it isn’t as for what it is: Horizon isn’t a mainstream endeavor … but it’s acting like one. The content is decidedly explicit, yet the trailer has received rave reviews in the mainstream for its use of Hollywood-quality computer-generated special effects.

A columnist for Blastr, part of the SyFy Network, says of the trailer, “If I didn’t tell you that Horizon was a porn flick, I don’t think you’d be able to tell by looking at this trailer. Oh, I’m sure none of the actors can act, but director Sam Hain is wise to hide this fact in much the same way that director Renny Harlin didn’t put any dialogue in the trailer for Sylvester Stallone’s Cliffhanger. You lead with your strength, and Horizon’s strength seems to be some halfway decent CG effects.”