Alumna costars in local independent film

Former UVU student Jaclyn Hales is currently starring in Unicorn City, a movie that is Utah-based in nearly all ways, including being currently filmed in Alpine. Publicist Nate Olson calls the film a “story of gamers who move to the mountains to live out their fantasy lives.” Considered a modern day version of Don Quixote, the movie features the Live Action Role Playing (LARP) culture, which was also represented in the 2008 film Role Models.

Hales plays Marsha, who is love with the protagonist, Voss. Her role brings a gentle and romantic light to the movie.

Unicorn City was written by two brothers from Utah, Bryan and Adrian Lefler. This isn’t the first film they’ve been involved with; Bryan was part of the production team for the wildly popular local movie Napoleon Dynamite, and their father, Tom, is an administrator in BYU’s film program.

The film’s executive producer, Ken Bretschneider, is also from Utah. Unicorn City is his first feature length picture, though he has two more in the works.

Most notably, the film’s antagonist is played by Jon Gries, who is best known for his work as Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite. Gries plays Shadow Hawk, who schemes to get rid of Voss so he can have Marsha to himself.

The Lefler brothers are hoping to wrap up filming soon, with expectations to submit the film to the Sundance Film Festival next year, and are optimistic about a national release of the film by fall 2010.

“The backdrop of this film, which is gaming, is not as important as what the people are going through,” director Bryan Lefler said. “It’s just a group of people that love each other. It’s about a girl who loves a boy, and the boy realizes he loves her, too. The fact it has to do with gaming is purely backdrop.

“The meaning I hope people will get from it is they will end up loving the characters and see they are a close-knit family.”

For more information about Unicorn City, visit www.Facebook.com/UnicornCity or www.Twitter.com/UnicornCity.