It’s not every week you get a Thai sci-fi trailer that looks like it could have crawled out of both a pulp magazine and a fever dream. Project Genesis (originally Taklee Genesis) has finally dropped its U.S. trailer, ahead of a digital and physical release on October 21, 2025, courtesy of capelight pictures.
Directed by Chookiat Sakveerakul, a name already cemented in Southeast Asian cinema for 13 Beloved and The Love of Siam, the film doesn’t play it safe. Instead, the trailer throws everything at you: time machines, giant monsters, dinosaurs, cavemen, zombies. On paper, it sounds like a trainwreck. On screen? It’s wild enough to work.
The plot follows Stella (Paula Taylor), a scientist and single mother who stumbles across a cryptic radio transmission—her father’s voice, lost for decades and trapped in space. To find him, she hunts for the Genesis Machine, a relic of a CIA project buried somewhere in Thailand. What follows looks like a hallucinatory genre mashup—Interstellar colliding with Jurassic Park by way of kaiju cinema. The trailer doesn’t hide its scale; it flaunts it, cutting from intimate family moments to cosmic chaos without apology.
Sakveerakul isn’t just making noise here. His past films have blended genre tropes with emotional weight, and the footage suggests he’s chasing the same balance: spectacle wrapped around a core of grief, legacy, and survival. That makes the difference between disposable chaos and something worth watching.
From a marketing perspective, this is a clever play. U.S. distributors rarely gamble on Thai blockbusters outside horror, but capelight pictures has been steadily building a library of international genre hits (Talk to Me, The Roundup series). Project Genesis fits that mold—eye-catching, niche, and big enough to lure both cult audiences and casual streamers.
The production design pops even in trailer form. There’s an unapologetic blend of practical sets, CGI vistas, and monster suits that recall the tactile pleasures of ‘80s sci-fi. And then there’s the audacity of scope—7,000 years of history crammed into 129 minutes. If the movie pulls that off, Sakveerakul may have delivered the rare genre epic that actually deserves the term.
Key Insights from the Project Genesis Trailer
- A Kaleidoscopic Storyline
Time travel, dinosaurs, kaiju, zombies—it’s a multi-genre assault designed to overwhelm and intrigue. - Emotional Core
At its heart, the story is about a daughter trying to reconnect with her long-lost father, grounding the spectacle in human stakes. - Visual Texture
Practical effects mix with CGI in a way that feels handcrafted, avoiding the flatness of too many recent studio tentpoles. - Distribution Strategy
Capelight pictures continues its mission to import bold international genre cinema, betting U.S. audiences are ready for Thai sci-fi on October 21. - A Director’s Biggest Swing Yet
After two decades of genre-shifting work, Sakveerakul is staking his reputation on his most ambitious project to date.
Will American audiences embrace a Thai time-travel monster mash, or will it be too strange for mainstream tastes? Watch the trailer here and decide for yourself.
