YouTube Red has released the official trailer for The Thinning, the subscription service’s first-ever feature-length thriller starring digital luminaries Logan Paul and Lia Marie Johnson. Disney star Peyton List and Stacey Dash of Clueless fame round out the cast. The trailer debuted during Tuesday’s Streamy Awards ceremony, and is currently live on Paul’s YouTube channel.
The slick film conjures other popular dystopian YA franchises like The Hunger Games and Divergent, depicting a future in which the earth has been drained of natural resources and high school students must take an aptitude test to determine whether they will live or die in order to keep populations under control — a process known as ‘The Thinning’. When leading man Paul fails the test, however, he seems to discover that the results have been rigged, leading to an uprising of sorts.
The Thinning was directed by Michael Gallagher, a noted figure within the digital media sphere who has worked extensively with Shane Dawson and most recently directed the Maker Studios-produced mockumentary Internet Famous. Paul and Johnson, too, have appeared in several high-profile premium projects, including YouTube Red’s Foursome and AwesomenessTV’s Expelled, respectively.
The cast is also set to appear at New York Comic Con over the weekend, where they will screen the first 20 minutes of the film and then participate in a behind-the-scenes panel discussion. Check out the trailer for The Thinning, which premieres on YouTube Red on Oct. 12, below:
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