If we can’t escape the Matrix, how do we decide what matters most?
2026
Feature Film | Sci-fi
In the wake of a cosmic event, a reclusive scientist studying fungi discovers she’s trapped in a simulation powered by the very system she helped create.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
Jenna Kanell
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY
Lilly Wachowski
PRODUCED BY
Thang Ho
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY
James Ward Byrkit, Ahbra Perry
CO-PRODUCED BY
Tony Poon
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY
Kristian Zuniga
PRODUCTION DESIGN BY
Harrison Chambers
CASTING BY
Salvatore Schiavone, Gianna Butler
Synopsis
To Jonah, data is everything. She’s happiest alone, in nature, immersed in the research of fungal networks.
But impatient for progress, her corporate pharmaceutical employer intervenes, deploying a supervisor who gives Jonah one week to prove the merits of her work.
Through their time together, an existential terror overtakes Jonah upon discovering the truth about the very nature of her reality.
And when you tug on one thread, the whole sweater comes apart.
Looking behind the curtain of her own existence uncovers even darker revelations about her life, everyone she loves, and the entirety of all biological life on Earth.
The betrayal suffocates her as she drowns in a prison of her own creation. In its wake, Jonah's forced to confront the next stage of mankind's evolution.
She’s left with a choice: to end her consciousness forever…or to keep going. To find gratitude in the profound human experience of joy, hope, love, and loss.
To make peace with meaninglessness, and create meaning anyway.
Team Behind the Project
Writer | Director | Actor
Terrifier, Renfield, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, WandaVision, TEDx Speaker
Executive Producer
The Matrix Trilogy, Sense8, V for Vendetta
Producer
DGA, Emmy-Winning Producer
Power of Pearl, Hot Biscuit, Dinner to Die For
Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Oscar-winning Rango, Coherence, Shatter Belt
Co-Producer
Telly-Winning Producer, Producers Guild
Cinematographer
Sundance, Tribeca, Slamdance
IMDb | Instagram
Harrison Chambers
Production Designer
Sundance, Tribeca, Slamdance
Salvatore Schiavone
Casting director
Wonder man, Blink Twice, Him
Gianna Butler
Casting director
Black-ish, Cobra Kai, The Real Bros of Simi Valley
Film Comps
Coherence
Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Directed by James Ward Byrkit
X
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Dark Romance | Sci-Fi | Psychological Drama
Directed by Michel Gondry
Ex Machina
Sci-Fi | Psychological Thriller | Drama
Directed by Alex Garland
De Novo explores fungal biotech, consciousness, and the cost of progress—grounded in real science and told from a woman’s perspective, without defining her by romance or trauma. Unlike most AI stories, it sees AI as a mirror, not a monster.
Blending animation, stop motion, and live-action, it’s both a love letter to Earth and a cautionary tale. At its core, De Novo asks: If life has no inherent meaning, how do we make it matter?
Director’s Statement
Film Tone
With the emotional depth of Her and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the innovative visuals of Everything Everywhere All At Once, De Novo blends personal storytelling with bold imagery.
We want the audience to walk away with their brains melted and their hearts filled.
Characters
Jonah
cast
Jenna Kanell
An androgynous mycologist who passionately derives fulfillment from her scientific research, even while at philosophical odds with the major pharmaceutical company she works for. She prefers the isolation of the wilderness to the company of others, and believes everything can be boiled down to data.
Aviyaan
cast
To Be Announced
Jonah's romantic partner, and a fellow scientist, albeit one who works in a lab. Having watched his successful mother die alone, to him his job is just that. Hopelessly in love, he has the heart of a poet, and wants nothing more than for Jonah to come home so they can build a life together.
Chiasa
cast
Alexis Louder
A bioethicist, who on behalf of the corporation interrupts to evaluate over the course of a week whether to renew Jonah's research grant. She takes her work quite seriously, at the intersection of philosophy and science. But eventually, her true intentions erupt to the surface.
Paul
cast
Frank Crim
Jonah's mentor and father figure, he's devoted his life to building a piece of fungal biotechnology: a machine powered by mycelium. He helped usher Jonah into her field and continues to provide guidance. But he's dying.
Current Status
Development ⎯ Pre-Pro ⎯ Production
“It's a love letter to the breathtaking planet at our fingertips. It's a reminder that we're a part of said world, rather than separate from it. We forget how tiny we are in the massive scheme of the universe, and how little time we have. We can choose to let such a fact crush us, or lean into a sense of awe and wonder, and focus on the things that truly matter. Before action must come awareness: when we look outwards, we look inwards.”
— Jenna KanellCinematography
In the vein of early Chloe Zhao films such as The Rider, Nomadland, and Songs My Brothers Taught Me, we're filming the exteriors of De Novo intimately; almost entirely handheld, leaning on natural lighting. And for stylistic moments and interiors, we’re motivating the lighting with the environment. Immersed in the natural, isolated, world of the character in, and a part of, her element.
Production Design
In the vein of Black Mirror, the few elements of production design which ground us in a not-too-far-off time period are relatively simplistic. One element I'm particularly excited about in this department: similar to a tactic used in films such as The Shining, we'll create purposeful continuity errors in the set decoration, which begin subtly and increase in severity as our sense of reality crumbles.
Isolated in the woods, the Living Lab is powered entirely by mycelium: mycofiltration for water, mycoremediation for plumbling, mycofabrication for furniture and construction. Not off the grid, but on its own grid.
