Southern Utah will serve as the setting for “The Wilderness,” a new Hollywood film written, produced and directed by Spencer King and co-produced by Aaron Paul.
The film follows a troubled young teen who is kidnapped from his home and forced to embark on a trip through the Utah desert with a group of similarly affected young boys.
The film stars Hunter Doohan, who is best known for portraying Tyler Galpin in the Netflix series “Wednesday,” as well as one of the villains in “Daredevil: Born Again.” He is joined by Lamar Johnson who portrayed Henry Burrell in the HBO series “The Last of Us.”
King based the story off of his experiences attending a wilderness therapy camp, and chose to set the film in Utah, where his experience took place. They filmed in the Boulder area of Southern Utah, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The area was a mere 45-minute stretch of land, full of red sandstone and aspen groves.
“I wanted to convey a long journey for these kids, and that was a way we could do it without having to spend millions of more dollars picking up and going to another area,” King said. “We could do it all right there.”
Alongside the talented young cast, King also received the help of co-producer Aaron Paul, best known for portraying the character of Jesse Pinkman on the television series “Breaking Bad.” Paul helped secure funding and assemble the cast for the film.
“The Wilderness” will run in theaters from now until December. For more information, including the full cast, synopsis and movie trailer, see here.
Author: Conner Dean
Editor: Hannah Clove
Photos courtesy of Dark Star Pictures
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