Troika’s 4th film penned by best-selling author

Director Luke Jaden (photo: Ash Morris)

“King Ripple” is a
“Stand by Me”
kind of adventure
delivered in a
David Lynch
kind of vehicle

In December, director Luke Jaden finished production on King Ripple, a post-apocalyptic thriller about four friends who unwittingly fall prey to a blood curdling villain in the frozen grime of an industrial slum during the dead of winter.

It is the fourth film completed by Troika, the production company that 18-year old Jaden launched with two partners last year, and the first feature length screenplay by Josh Malerman, author of the 2011 best-selling horror novel, Bird Box.

Shot in the abandoned factory neighborhoods of Jaden’s native Detroit, the director describes King Ripple as a Stand by Me kind of adventure by way of a David Lynch kind of vehicle.

“The friends have heard all these legends about this man named Ripple who lives in this decrepit urban waste land,” he explains. “Their parents have warned them not to go.”

“As they are brought forth by this being that they hoped to find, really surreal things happen to each of them.”

Jaden, who plays one of the teenagers, originally discussed the idea with Malerman after shooting Not Well, their first collaboration, in 2014.

Malerman’s knack for conjuring terror out of thin air provided the perfect style for the plot. His 2014 novel, Bird Box, maintains a Hitchcockian level of suspense that has won critical praise and thousands of fans throughout the world, including nominations for the 2015 Bram Stoker and Jamese Herbert awards.

Over the next several months, he wrote the “dreamy, nightmarish, inspirational and bizarre” story that became King Ripple.

He also dialed up the buzz by spreading it among a diverse fan base of his own. In addition to his writing fame, he is lead singer for the band The High Strung, which performs the theme song for the Showtime series, “Shameless.”

Actor Keith Stanfield stars as the eponymous, fear mongering character behind all the horror in King Ripple. His most recent roles include political activist Jimmie Lee Jackson in the Oscar-nominated Selma and Snoop Dogg in upcoming NWA biopic, Straight Outta Compton.

Jaden concluded that “Keith is the only person who can bring King Ripple to reality” after viewing Stanfield’s Indie Spirt nominated performance in Short Term 12. He sent Stanfield’s team a copy of the script and a few weeks later Stanfield was on the set.

“Everything he did with the character was absolutely mind blowing,” Jaden says. “At times filled with melancholy, at times happy and joyful, at times with tears rolling down his face, he can be your friend one minute and stab you the next.”

King Ripple is currently being edited by Beast Detroit’s Adam Pillon. It is scheduled to hit the festival circuit this summer.