One of the most widely reported and widely documented UFO sightings was the incident referred to as “The Phoenix Lights.” On Thursday, March 13, 1997, thousands of people in southern Arizona witnessed a large V-shaped formation of lights that flew over the area, eventually hovering over Phoenix. Screenwriter T.S. Nowlin (The Maze Runner (2014) and its sequels) uses this incident as the launching point for the new found footage film Phoenix Forgotten. Nowlin is co-producing along with Ridley Scott (Alien (1979), The Martian (2015)) and Wes Ball (producer of The Maze Runner franchise). Here is a look at the trailer:
The official synopsis is as follows:
Based on the shocking, true events of March 13th, 1997, when several mysterious lights appeared over Phoenix, Arizona. This unprecedented and inexplicable phenomenon became known as “The Phoenix Lights”, and remains the most famous and widely viewed UFO sighting in history.
Phoenix Forgotten tells the story of three teens who went into the desert shortly after the incident, hoping to document the strange events occurring in their town. They disappeared that night, and were never seen again. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of their disappearance, unseen footage has finally been discovered, chronicling the final hours of their fateful expedition. For the first time ever, the truth will be revealed…
How much one is excited by the trailer is probably directly related to how much one likes found footage films. It looks like it has a lot of the standard tropes: missing student filmmakers, shakey-cam, distraught subjects. UFO enthusiasts might get a kick out of it, as well, since it is based on a “true” incident. Based on the following still, it looks like we may also get a bit more in the film regarding the people who discovered the footage, which could add interest for those that are not the biggest fans of found footage films.
Be sure to check out their website at www.phoenixforgotten.com, where they have links to numerous media reports about the actually Phoenix Lights incident, including an interview with former Arizona Governor Fife Symington, who was in office at the time and was one of the thousands of witnesses. The film opens on 1700 screens nationwide on April 21, 2017.
