A tremor ripples in the bayou: Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest welcomes Adam Driver and prehistoric man-eaters in ’65’

You know exactly how this producer’s meeting went:

“Well, it’s Prometheus meets Jurassic Park and it’s 90 minutes of Adam Driver on Dagobah.” 

“Okay, sold. How much money do you need?” 

This was the theoretical origin of Adam Driver’s new movie, 65, where a space-bound Adam Driver crashes into a prehistoric wilderness and must survive with a pistol and some simple laser hand grenades. 65 has all the looks of a movie that embeds the audience in a truly beloved movie trope: 

Dump a major star in a jungle and see how long they survive.

The trailer for 65 was released the week before Christmas and hinted at a few basic truths.

This movie will not be about body count.

It’s Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt against the dinosaurs. This makes perfect sense, as 65 is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writing team that built the success of A Quiet Place around a nuclear family surrounded by impending intelligent terror.

The worldbuilding of 65 has extensively incorporated the natural beauty of the Kisatchie National Forest.

The top shot above is a photo from the United States Forest Service Instagram. Yes, forests have their own Instagrams. The bottom shot is a screenshot from the 65 trailer. Clearly, the location manager for 65 and the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Film Commission did a great job collaborating to bring 65 to the old longleaf pine and white beech trees that give the Kisatchie National Forest a scrubby, almost desolate forest atmosphere. The prehistoric worldbuilding made possible by Kisatchie shows that Scott Beck and Bryan Woods carefully chose an environment that would dip an audience in a fully immersive “I’m lost in the past” vibe.

Filming ‘65’ in Vernon Parish, Louisiana boosted the local economy.

Baton Rouge and New Orleans get a lot of love from film productions, whether it be through the virtual production stage at Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge or the historic venues often sought around New Orleans. It’s good to see the Lake Charles region bring in a major production attached to a giant box office star like Driver, and the local economy has already benefited from the shoot. The parish, which has an entire population of about 52,000, received a boost in dining, shopping, and hotel room dollars from a production that was on location for several weeks during the winter of 2020-21.

“Jungle survival” will always be one of the coolest movie tropes, unless it’s happening to you.

Take it back to Predator in 1987. Peak “futuristic alien meets prehistoric jungle” atmosphere. How about simply “surviving the monster that lurks in the jungle” – 2005’s King Kong did it well, or the classic Jumanji – surviving jungle monsters in a board game.

Sometime in the summer of 2023, a family will be hiking through the piney hills of Kisatchie National Forest. Their stereotypical family dog, Baxter, runs ahead into the woods. The enthusiastic nine-year-old runs after, calling out when the barks suddenly stop. A shadow drifts through the foliage, and a tremor ripples in the bayou.

The dad, wearing a ridiculous amount of sunscreen and a safari hat, has one moment to look up into the open t-rex jaws towering above the treetops, muttering in awe:

“I thought it was just a movie.”

65 will release theatrically on March 3, 2023.

Fable House is a video production company based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana that specializes in production for film, video, commercials, and TV. Our team are experts in physical production, post-production, and VFX. We produce content for major brands, TV networks like Syfy and Lifetime, and provide production services to Louisiana’s never-say-die indie filmmakers.