DAVID KARLAK

writer and director

David Karlak is a visionary emerging Mexican-American filmmaker who strives to tell ambitious high concept stories intertwined with his unique perspective on society, culture and technology. His films have received a lot of love both online and offline, having been included in the official selections of over 45 film festivals and receiving multiple awards. He also directed a fully immersive VR experience for Alien: Convenant called In Utero, with Ridley Scott overseeing as executive producer, in partnership with 20th Century Fox and RSA Films.

David Karlak is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. In 2010 he directed the short film The Candidate that went on to make the Viewfinder List in 2011. Following the The Candidate, Karlak sold an original sci-fi pitch to Warner Brothers titled Rise with Roy Lee producing, and then a second original pitch titled Outliers to 20th Century Fox with Peter Chernin producing. Karlak is attached to direct both films. In recent years, Karlak has been exploring the use of virtual reality to tell narratives, having directed a virtual reality experience set in the world of Rise which premiered it at the Storyscapes series at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.

On March 3, 2017, Deadline.com reported that Filmula’s Johnny Lin and Cross Creek’s Brian Oliver acquired the feature film rights to Rise from Warner Brothers with Karlak attached to direct Rise is about a dystopian future where robots are targeted for elimination after they develop emotional symmetry to humans and a revolutionary war for their survival begins. Anton Yelchin starred in the short, which was based on a screenplay Karlak penned with writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (the Saw series).

Currently David Karlak is also part of The Panics collective and working on his latest project Azul.

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