Lance Avery Morgan
By Lance Avery Morgan Photography courtesy of The Big Bend film
Big Bend is your favorite national park in remote West Texas. Now, there is a new, eponymous film that offers a unique mix of reality and fiction. In fact, the writer/director Brett Wagner based The Big Bend film on an incident in which one of his friend’s children (The Big Bend’s film’s producer Aaron Brown) was briefly lost in the national park. It’s an experience that stuck with him and that’s where the idea for the film came from a family vacation that takes a chilling turn in the West Texas desert.
In the film, in the unknowable reaches of West Texas, two families meet for a long overdue reunion…but events quickly don’t go as planned. As they explore the desert, bathe in mud, and keep a wary eye out for snakes, the dust motes of menace and unease begin to swirl around them. When crisis strikes, they have nobody to turn to but themselves.
So, The Big Bend film follows the adventure of these two families in a hauntingly dangerous environment, creating an unforgettable portrait of marriage, friendship, parenthood, and survival.
The film is written and directed by Brett Wagner. Music and cameo by Texas native Shakey Graves. It stars Jason Butler Harner (Ozark, Apple+ series SUGAR, next up in Ryan Murphy’s season 2 of Monster on Netflix), along with Virginia Kull (Big Little Lies), David Sullivan (Sharp Objects), Erica Ash (We Have A Ghost). Nick Masciangelo, along with writer/ director Brett Wagner’s daughters, Delilah and Zoe Wagner co-star, along with Donny Dust, who also served as the film’s wilderness survival expert and set medic.
The film opens May 31 in Austin, TX at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. On Friday/Saturday opening night, there will be Q&As with Brett Wagner and the cast.
Additional markets in Dallas, Houston and more to follow. Take a look at the film’s trailer here.
