How does the process of casting a movie work?

Name This Sci-Fi Movie

• There is a movie I saw a few years ago on T.V. that I have never been able to find out the name of. I did not see the beginning of the movie so I may be a little sketchy on the initial events of the film, but here is what I recall. The movie was about a man who started "seeing things". Sometimes he would like at something or someone and it wouldn't look normal, it would be more gloomy or run down. At first he thought he was delusional, but soon he became sure that it had to be something more. It turned out that he was actually seeing the world as it really was around him and that what everone else saw was a signal being broadcasted to his brain (similar to the concept in the movie The Matrix, but wirelessly and without any action). He enlists the help of a female and together they try and find out the source of this transmission. The female is extremely hesitant at first, completely disbelieving, but eventually concedes. Their quest leads them to go to a highly regarded area where all of the "executives" and "big-wigs" work. I think it had some name similar to "The City", "The Metropolis", or "Downtown". As they explored "Downtown" (once again, that may be the wrong name) they found a building full of "important" researchers, business men, and scientists who were supposedly "in control" of the signal. The two stars soon set out to destroy the transmitter of the signal, hoping to snap everyone out of this dream world and back into reality. However, once they destroy the box, nothing changes. All of the scientists/important people freak out, fearing they'll lose their power and control of the world. The two stars flee and while they're looking around somewhere the female star, who is wearing a full white marilyn monroe style outfit, suddenly finds her skirt fly up in the air in full marilyn monroe style. The male star recognizes this scene from a book he once read and realizes that there must be a vent beneath her, even though he cannot "see" one. They feel around on the ground and find and entry to an underground tunnel. While exploring underground, they meet an old man who explains that he is actually responsible for the signal. He said that some people just need to feel important, to have power, to be in control, and so the people "Downtown" were lead to believe that they were controlling the signal, to make themselves feel important and powerful. In actuality though, it was just various stations underground manned by a solitary individual. The two males (the star and this new older gentleman) argue over the signal, and in the process somehow the old man dies (I believe either electrocuted or a heart attack, but I may be mistaken on his demise). The end result is that the signal it turned off and the two stars return to the surface. Upon returning above ground, they found the whole world to look desolate and worn down. The male star went to see his parent, expecting them to be terrified, instead he returns home to find them acting perfectly normal. They are sitting in their living room watching T.V. on their big screen television. The male star looks at this and sees that it is just a giant card board box with a barcode on it. He tries to explain things to his parents, but its futile. He realizes that even without the signal broadcasting, everyone's brains have gotten so used to it, that they do not need it to envision the reality it offered. So, everyone still sees what the signal was broadcasting, even though its off. *****Things to keep in mind, but *may* be wrong***** -I *believe* that his father was also injured, maybe a prosthetic arm/leg and replacement eye or eye patch (none of which he was aware of due to the signal). - I *believe* that all of this supposedly started after world war III after the planet was ravaged, again just thoughts - I would categorize this film as a sci-fi film, probably not as an action film though. - I believe I saw this movie around 2000, or so. Leading me to believe it was a late nineties or newer film. It may be older, but I don't think so, however I *did* see it on TV, not in a theatre. - I *believe* that this was a movie, it *could* have been an episode of a TV show such as The Outer Limits, but I don't think so since I am a fan of The Outer Limits (The New Series) and don't remember the trademark closing statements normally found in Outer Limits episodes. I know that this film was easily an hour long as I watched it, more than likely it was a full length film.

• Answer:

  Your movie is "Virtual Nightmare," a neat little made-for-TV film from 2000. I recognized it from your description. This movie has been shown on the Sci-Fi Channel and also on UPN. "Dale Hunter ([Michael] Muhney) is an advertising executive living in a weird alternate future, where Marilyn Monroe survived to make films with Leonardo DiCaprio. But after an accident, cracks being to appear in his reality, and he enlists a library assistant ([Tasma] Walton) to try and work out what's going on before he gets 'sent to the Honolulu office' by his employers - a place from which no-one ever seems to return. And what is 'Arora', the mysterious product for which he's designing commercials?" Trash City: Virtual Nightmare http://www.trashcity.org/BLITZ/BLIT1619.HTM "...these two people woke up from this matrix. The world they woke up into was dark and dangerous. At the end of the movie they find out that dark and dangerous place is just a failsafe. If anybody wakes up, the fail safe makes them want the original. the real world is a normal enviroment. a tv is a cardboard box as is the washer, dryer, refrigirator... The matrix makes you think that these things are TV's, Dryers etc... The name of the movie is 'Virtual Nightmare'" MFN Forums: Matrix Trilogy Leak??? http://forums.matrixfans.net/showthread.php?t=12542 "I think I saw it on sci-fi. And it was about a computer who's job was to provide for people after a war. So it put barcodes on a bunch of boxes and [transmitted] a signal so when the poeple saw the barcodes they would see things like t.v. channels and stuff. And one person could somehow see the real world... It's Virtual Nightmare (2000)" SciFlicks SQUAD! Forums http://forums.sciflicks.com/printthread.php?s=86aa32ff0d9224b7e7a5b365724be07a&threadid=14489&perpage=15&pagenumber=1 "Virtual Nightmare (2000) A man drives around his small hometown in a brand new convertible. The style of everything is 1950's but people have cell-phones, HDTV and computers-and an announcer on the radio says something about Kurt Cobain's children's christmas album coming out soon. Indeed a very different world. This man starts seeing things, though, like numbers and bar codes on everyday items-even seeing his parents as crippled, burned-out looking people. In fact, the more he sees these things the more he suspects that his own reality isn't real. It's finally revealed to him by a group of people that it's really a hundred years later than he thinks it is and that people live in this type of virtual reality because reality is simply too horrible after the wars and devastation. The people in the domed cities control the virtual reality. He believes this for a while-until he figures out that even this new reality is still virtual reality and that the real world is something else entirely." Buried.com: Movie Reviews http://www.buried.com/moviereviews/horror.php?id=1071 "Virtual Nightmare (2000) When a junior advertising executive discovers that the world he lives in is a total virtual reality projection designed to hide the grim truth of an apocalyptic disaster, he risks his life to expose the truth behind the ultimate conspiracy. Dale Hunter, a junior advertising exec on the fast track, begins to experience visions that the bucolic reality he lives in is a monumental scam. Seeking help from the local librarian, Wendy, a self-professed misfit, the two discover that the world they think they inhabit is actually a projection of a machine, the Direct Broadcast Virtual Reality. Designed to keep the populace happy and peaceful after a purported nuclear and chemical holocaust has decimated the earth, the pair confront Andrew Blake who controls the machine. When Dale and Wendy attempt to destroy the DBVR and restore the world to its natural state, they make an astounding and terrifying discovery." UPNcyclopedia: Virtual Nightmare http://upncyclopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Virtual_Nightmare_(2000) My Google search strategy: Google Web Search: broadcast virtual reality "virtual nightmare" ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=broadcast+virtual+reality+%22virtual+nightmare%22 I hope this is the right movie! If not, please request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you rate my answer. Best regards, pinkfreud