Magnesium's New Sci-fi Series Celeritas Raises the Bar for Immersive, High-concept Podcasts
Celeritas, the new sci-fi/action/mystery podcast from Magnesium Film premiers today on Spotify, Apple or anywhere you get your podcasts. Celeritas delivers the kind of captivating story, epic world-building, complex characters and immersive effects normally reserved for big-budget TV and films.
Magnesium believes the age of the first-run narrative podcast is here. For years, podcasts were primarily nonfiction: a universe of interviews, opinions, research and news. But in a revival of the radio drama, escape is once again on the dial.
Strap in for a rollercoaster of artificial black holes, asteroid fields, the disappearance of mankind, and the visceral horror of being entombed in deep space.
On its surface, this is the story of the first manned light-speed flight gone horribly wrong ? and an astronaut's desperate attempt to stay alive long enough in an unforgiving solar system to figure out what happened to mankind. But amongst the big set pieces is a meditative study of isolation. The astronaut, Captain Owen Keating (voiced by Alexander Adell) is hurled into an artificial black hole at the behest of his billionaire employer Gaby (played by Erika Alperin). When he regains consciousness he is further from Earth than any person or probe has ever been. He is also immeasurably far in the future. Deeply hopeless, there's a purity in the absolute solitude; the schedule-1-narcotic version of a feeling we've all become too familiar with, trapped in our homes, masks strapped to our faces, fading memories of the lively society we grew up in.
There is something gratifying about this, underscored by transcendent music from luminary ambient bands like Eluvium, Stars of the Lid and A Winged Victory For The Sullen. Just before the face-melting spacetime assault, crashing alarms or exploding fuel tanks become too much, it all stops, haunting tones swell and that's all there is for a while. Floating alone, as in a sensory deprivation tank, in an airlock ? or in quarantine.
Early in episode 1, after barely surviving an engine fire, Captain Keating is forced to dial into a company PR event. When asked if the ordeal scared him he says, "Sometimes fear is just your body's way of telling you to pay lots of attention, because you're about to do something new." Give Celeritas a listen. Don't be afraid, it's more familiar than you think.
Celeritas Episode 1 premiers today on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts.
ABOUT MAGNESIUM FILM
Celeritas is produced by Magnesium Film, an independent studio in Austin, TX with offices in West Hollywood, CA. Formed in 2018 by Pixar and Netflix alums to produce original and adapted science fiction podcasts, TV and film, Magnesium Film welcomes inquiries from agents and producers at [email protected].
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