INT. HOUSE NEAR JOSHUA TREE - DAY

DEVON, a jaded Hollywood writer and her old A-list actor friends, TESS, JASON, and ANTON join disgraced producer GENNA for an opportunity of a lifetime. Workshop a film for HASTUR, the world's most famous director, an auteur with Banksy-like anonymous mystique. Working with Hastur is reason enough, but Devon reluctantly accepts the role from Genna, who stole her movie and then fumbled the project. Genna promises her if she completes the workshop, her movie will finally get made.

The workshop is grueling and unorthodox. Genna strips away the actors' defenses, demanding they mine their deepest traumas to find raw truth in their performances. As the actors finally deliver breakthrough performances, they are rewarded with a sign from the anonymous director: a single yellow rose. But the reward is ultimatey a death sentence. One by one, the actors are violently murdered by featureless, white-masked doppelgängers who steal their roles and performances.

Devon soon discovers the truth: Hastur is not just a Hollywood director. He is an ancient cosmic entity harvesting human art to replace it with flawless inhuman perfection. To survive, her only weapon against him is a messy humanity he cannot replicate.

THE KING IN YELLOW is a chamber cosmic horror about the consequences of taking humanity out of art. But the deeper allegory goes deeper than only generative AI, it satirizes the commoditization of art by a profit-oriented system aiming to strip the messiness out of human work and replace it with something "perfect" and cost-effective.

THE SOURCE

The movie is something of an adaptation of the 1895 short story collection The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, or at least a spiritual successor. This collection is often cited as the origin of cosmic horror—one of H.P. Lovecraft's primary inspirations and the literary skeleton behind many television shows and movies, including the breakout first season of TRUE DETECTIVE.

Adapting it for 2026 meant focusing on Hollywood, and the biggest existential threat in Hollywood right now is generative AI and profit-oriented studios. So the monster in this film does what generative AI does. It scrapes the best of human performance—the imperfections, the accidents, the lived experience that makes it recognizable as art — and replaces it with something that looks perfect but utterly devoid of soul.

SLOW BURN ENSEMBLE

In the tradition of cosmic horror and Chambers, the horror in this movie is an everpresent dread. So we must experience every character's arc, even if there is only one survivor in the end. We must take our time with this story. Become close with all of the characters. Sit and breathe in the environs.

Joshua Tree is a character in of itself. It's beauty, isolation, and raw nature when juxtaposed with the messy human artistic work presented will do a lot for us. We will use natural light and embrace the night's darkness. The beautiful resort home with its minimalist architecture and incredible views, light-filled rooms, will frame our shots. Our characters will reflect at the vista as dread consumes them.

THE PROJECT

We need $70k to complete THE KING IN YELLOW, but are raising funds in phases. The first phase is to get the move into production, requiring about $48k and of that $27k is needed for principal photography. There are various fundraising channels in motion, including private donors, sponsors, and our own bootstrapped cash.

We are coming to Seed & Spark right now with the walkathon to tackle two initial production days that will play double duty as footage and as assets for our trailer. These days will tackle key moments in the climax and third act to make future promotion much more intensive and effective.

We have reserved the perfect location in Joshua Tree and configured the script and pre-production efforts around this location. We have until November 12 to pay for the location or we’ll lose it.

We have additional fundraising channels in place for principal photography, including paying the cast and crew, food, and insurance. However, if we were to raise more with the walkathon here on Seed & Spark, then any surplus can go to the next round of fundraising required for post-production, marketing, and distribution.

The more we raise here, the easier everything becomes and the more we can shoot.

WHO ARE WE?

I am Writer/Director Mark Christopher Havenner and this is my second feature. My first, THE END IS TRENDING, is in post-production and due to be released in Oct-Nov. I spent most of my life in corporate marketing where I did strategy, content, and production and started Khepri Films in 2024 when I wanted to dedicate myself entirely to filmmaking—a passion I’ve had since I was a little kid. Finally got there. Took a while.

Award-winning filmmaker Merivelle is onboard as the cinematographer. At just 19 years old she became one of the youngest filmmakers to win Best Student Short at the prestigious Beverly Hills Film Festival for her film. Her approach and aesthetic is a perfect fit for the moody, slow-burn, cinematic vision of the film.

Many of the folks who worked on THE END IS TRENDING is also working on this project, including most of the principals, and the Assistant Director Alex Garcia and Production Sound Mixer Cash Dyer-McGowen.

DIRECTORIAL WORK: THE END IS TRENDING BY MARK CHRISTOPHER HAVENNER

AWARD-WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHY WORK: 'THE SIT DOWN' and 'OPA' BY MERIVELLE

THE ATTACHED CAST:

100% TAX DEDUCTIBLE

Film Independent is our fiscal sponsor and will collect your contribution. So when you donate you not only fund our production but you are also funding Film Independent so they can continue to help and support independent filmmakers like myself.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE

The funds from this project will go directly to our initial phase of principal photography, which will focus on high-yield assets for future promotion, including footage for a trailer, stills, poster, BTS, etc. We will then initiate further fundraising in various channels to continue the production.

• September 2026: Initial Fundraising
• October- November 2026: Pre-Production and rehearsal
• December 2026: Two-day initial Principal Photography
• January-April 2027: Next phase of Principal Photography
• May - July 2027: Post-Production
• October 2027: Distribution

WALKATHON FUNDRAISER: 85 MILES, 32 INDIE THEATERS ACROSS L.A.

Beginning September 1, I am walking to 32 indie theaters over 85 miles across Los Angeles to fund my independent feature THE KING IN YELLOW through fiscal sponsor Film Independent.

Do you feel those headwinds? It feels like the studios have abandoned us in Los Angeles, but something else is emerging. Independent film is rising like a phoenix from the ashes and the beating heart of the movement are the indie cinemas who host them.

2026 has shown us a great deal. Tried-and-true franchises will continue to cost more than they can bring in at the box office and indie voices will bring in far more than their small features cost. Audiences are clamoring for indie and rising stars are happy to comply.

WHY A WALKATHON

This fundraiser is about giving us a lift we need to get THE KING IN YELLOW into principal photography, but it’s also about highlighting and celebrating independent film and cinemas in Los Angeles. It’s about exploring our city literally on the ground level and remembering the hallmarks of what makes it great. The people, the local businesses, the culture—real Angelenos living real lives.

Fueling independent film is not just about art, it is about keeping Los Angeles’ legacy intact for us and the future of the industry. And the blood, sweat, and tears it took to build the industry in the first place.

The theaters I’m visiting are thriving, even as Hollywood can’t seem to figure out how to get audiences into seats. Every week they are hosting indie premieres, film festivals, panels—nurturing the indie movement on the ground level. Some are even being reborn, seizing a new era at beloved locations like the Cinerama Dome and the Bruin. 

Walking to them is the best way to show these theaters and how they impact their locals, their community, and the broader industry.

Follow along on social media where I will sharing daily route breakdowns, meetings, and random encounters. You can experience the whole thing from the comfort of your own home.

THE WALK

VIEW ON GOOGLE MAPS->

SPONSORSHIPS

Local theaters or businesses who back the $250 Walkathon Sponsorship Level will get call outs during the journey and logo placement on all of our materials.

Brand placement and integration opportunities are available, but not through this campaign. Reach out!

AI DISCLOSURE

We view AI as an umbrella term to describe:

• Embedded Tools: primarily post-production tools that do things like de-noise, upscale footage, fixing dead pixels, etc.
• Human Generative Workflows: Custom VFX modeling within a closed system
• Generative AI: Content rendered from prompts that pump out backgrounds, sets, actors, voice, music, VFX, etc.

We will used embedded tools in post-production and will likely not need to do HGW because our FX are practical, although we may use masking sequences in post-production depending on need.

We have not and will not use generative AI for footage, writing, promotion, distribution or any aspect of this project. It is part of the thesis of this movie that stealing other people's art in order to regurgitate it and call it your own is entirely the problem.

FOLLOWING COSTS NOTHING

Even if you can't contribute or need to wait until later in the month to pay, follow now. That helps us in many tangible ways, but most importantly you get to stay in the loop on our efforts. Seed & Spark gives us bennies when a certain amount follow so there's that too.