Kerry Mondragon’s new film mascotland brings together established actors and indie creatives for a darkly comic coming-of-age thriller shooting around los angeles and nearby desert locations.
Kerry Mondragon, the writer-director behind the project formerly known as Mascots, has started principal photography on Mascotland, an independent feature that leans into genre-mixing rather than neat labels. The film weaves dark comedy, coming-of-age drama and thriller beats, and is currently shooting across Los Angeles and the nearby desert — a pairing of settings meant to anchor gritty realism while allowing for occasional surreal flourishes.
A distinct visual identity is clearly a priority: producer Salomé Breziner has teamed with cinematographer Ben Braham Ziryab, whose role will be central in translating the script’s tonal shifts into mood and color. The filmmakers describe Mascotland as genre-fluid, trading on intimate character work as much as on tension-filled set pieces. Shooting between the city’s cramped textures and the desert’s barren expanses is both an aesthetic choice and a practical one, designed to sharpen the film’s emotional contrasts.
At the heart of the story are two young brothers freshly released from long captivity. Oliver Hibbs Wyman (credited as Toad) and Blaine Kern III play the siblings, navigating disorientation, fragile trust and a tentative path toward redemption. Tyrese Gibson joins as the compassionate — if complicated — figure who takes them in, an anchor likely to broaden the film’s appeal beyond indie circles.
The narrative reportedly toggles between bleak humor and mounting suspense, a tonal gamble that depends on keeping the characters’ stakes clear and immediate. Supporting that gamble, the cast also includes Billy Zane as the film’s menacing kidnapper — the catalyst for the brothers’ escape — and Jake Busey, who steps into a role originally intended for the late Udo Kier. Additional names on the call sheet are Leo Fitzpatrick, James Paxton, Lin Shaye and Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, creating a mix of familiar faces and character actors to widen the film’s emotional and commercial range.
Mascotland is being shepherded through a networked indie financing model, with executive producers such as Ben Lewin and Bryan Anderson and contributors including Matt Karol, Gabrielle Almagor, Samuel J Pauling and Jijo Reed. Companies attached to the project include Sugar Studios, Maritime Artists and Akashic Studios. This kind of collaborative funding — a patchwork of small equity partners, gap financiers and in-kind contributors — is standard for lower-budget genre work; it spreads risk and opens multiple avenues for festivals and sales.
Those financing arrangements also shape creative strategy: producers often attach talent and vendors who bring distribution know-how or festival relationships, positioning the film for a strategic path to market rather than leaving everything to a single distributor. Ultimately who benefits and how revenues are shared will depend on contracts and the film’s performance at festivals and markets.
Mondragon has framed Mascotland around oscillating moods — moments of comic oddity punctured by real threat — which places a heavy visual burden on Ziryab. City sequences are meant to feel routine and claustrophobic, rich with detail, while desert scenes aim to accentuate isolation and elemental danger. The plan is to ground the characters’ emotional arcs in recognizable environments while reserving more stylized imagery for allegorical beats.
Logistically, concentrating production in Los Angeles and nearby desert locations simplifies transport and crew coordination, but it also demands careful planning on lighting, lenses and continuity as the team shifts between markedly different atmospheres. The departments that keep tonal continuity across those jumps will play a major role in how seamless the final film feels.
Casting choices favor actors who can carry long, ambiguous scenes that blend intimacy with menace; Mondragon’s past work suggests he prefers performers with theater or indie-film experience who can deliver both satire and depth. Agents and managers are already positioning the cast to highlight both festival prospects and downstream commercial windows, a common approach for films that straddle arthouse and genre audiences.
Representation on the project includes IAG, Monami Management and Pearlman & Tishbi for Tyrese Gibson; Paradigm for Billy Zane; and the Alexander Gordon White Agency for Blaine Kern III. Those relationships matter less for the creative content than for packaging, screenings and buyer outreach once the film is ready to be marketed.
A distinct visual identity is clearly a priority: producer Salomé Breziner has teamed with cinematographer Ben Braham Ziryab, whose role will be central in translating the script’s tonal shifts into mood and color. The filmmakers describe Mascotland as genre-fluid, trading on intimate character work as much as on tension-filled set pieces. Shooting between the city’s cramped textures and the desert’s barren expanses is both an aesthetic choice and a practical one, designed to sharpen the film’s emotional contrasts.0
A distinct visual identity is clearly a priority: producer Salomé Breziner has teamed with cinematographer Ben Braham Ziryab, whose role will be central in translating the script’s tonal shifts into mood and color. The filmmakers describe Mascotland as genre-fluid, trading on intimate character work as much as on tension-filled set pieces. Shooting between the city’s cramped textures and the desert’s barren expanses is both an aesthetic choice and a practical one, designed to sharpen the film’s emotional contrasts.1