Chrome Noir

 

Role: Mayor Spats Lassiter (voice)
Release: 8.6.2015
Listen: Earmovies archive

Photo: Earwolf

synopsis

CHROME NOIR is a retro-futuristic noir mystery with murder, intrigue, and robots. The official synopsys reads as follows: Men in hats. Tommy guns. Robots. A film noir detective story that will have you riveted: this is Kent Tessman’s CHROME NOIR. Bringing the world of CHROME NOIR to life is Colin Hanks, Zachary Levi, Rob Morrow, Katie Lowes, Billy Burke, Stephanie Drake, Matt Bohrer, Ben Schrader, Andrea Anders, and Cooper Thornton.

The story is set in an alternate world where robots—or as they call them, Mechanicals—roam the street. Many of them take up jobs as drivers, like starring robot Gus. Gus (a strangely endearing robodude) is friends with Milo Rawley, a photographer with the heart of a detective. After taking some shots at a crime scene involving a Mechanical that fell nine stories through a window, Rawley senses that things aren’t adding up. Along with his fellow underdog, Gus, he begins his own quiet investigation.
 
Kent Tessman is a writer, director, and Canadian, and has been responsible for a couple of independent feature films as well as Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software. 

releases

 
The script was chosen by the Black List Table Reads’ listeners. It was the first listener-voted screenplay to be given the podcast treatment. Its reading was originally released in 4 weekly chapters in August 2015 on earwolf.com and on various podcast streaming services. It was then released as a single episode in November. The Black List Table Reads, hosted by Franklin Leonard, is now available in the Earmovies archive section of the The Black List website. In 2018 the novel version of Chrome Noir was also released in paperback and Kindle format.
 

reviews

Man, they’re good. I mean, obviously they’re good and that’s their job to be that good and so probably no one should be surprised that they’re that good, but I still think I get to be impressed with just how well they nailed it, coming in and reading it for the first time together over the course of a couple of hours. It really was an honor to get to be the writer listening to them bring the characters and story to life, and a pleasure to get to be the audience for it. Because I’m a pretty demanding audience and they hadn’t had nearly as much time with it as I had.
– Kent Tessman, screenwriter, kenttessman.com
 
The script nails the noir genre with all the classic moves; cool names like Bert Dixon and Spats Lassiter, femme fatales, gangsters, corruption, twists and turns, and sharp dialogue. Except this noir has robots. The cast brings the script to life with its performances, which are only enhanced by the jazzy score, futuristic yet classy robot voices, and crisp sound effects. With its strong characters and enthralling narration, it’s the perfect script for Black List fans.
– Rebecca Bulnes, AV Club
 

No, seriously, did I mention the cast? You get to hear some fantastic actors do some things you’ve never heard them do before. When you listen, it will become obvious that in a previous life Billy Burke was a corrupt 1930s mayor — and a damned good one at that.
– Kent Tessman, Chrome Noir Twitter, here and here

Listen now!

You can also read the podcast radio edit HERE.

BTS pictures

Copyright Earwolf

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