On Saturday afternoon at SXSW, at the same time as a featured conference session about cryptocurrency and financial democratization was happening at the JW Marriott in Downtown Austin, across town, filmmaker and actor Garrett Patten was debuting an action thriller set against the backdrop of bitcoin.
In Self Custody, Patten directs and also stars as a man who, in the middle of financial troubles, learns he has millions in bitcoin that he received from an old job, but it is trapped in a cryptocurrency wallet. Unable to access the wallet without a password, which he doesn’t remember, he turns to his former friend and boss (Adrian Grenier), who sets him up with a clandestine outfit that helps break into crypto wallets, all of which leads to disastrous consequences.
Related Stories
Movies 'The Last Critic' Review: Legendary Critic Robert Christgau Gets a Generous Homage in a Doc Revisiting Six Decades Chronicling the Best and Worst in Music
TV Prime Video's Steamy Hockey Romance 'Off Campus' Releases Teaser, Sets May Premiere Date
During a post-screening conversation with The Hollywood Reporter for THR Presents, Patten revealed that the short film is based on a variety of true stories, including one involving a personal friend who could not access his own bitcoin wallet and underwent severe emotional distress and even institutionalization. The filmmaker said, “The thought that someone could have that amount of money, tied to a little hard drive that, if you lose your pin code and your seed phrases, it’s just gone: That is so intriguing.”
Acting alongside Grenier and Michael Monks is Olympic gold medalist and UFC champion Henry Cejudo, making his acting debut as a one of the heavies behind the crypto wallet scheme.
When asked if prepping for his onscreen performance was different from prepping for a fight, Cejudo said, “There was a lot of time where I would do a certain kick of punch and it was just too fast. You have got to be able to sell it. I had to bring more theatrics to it.”
Patten recalls Cejudo adding his own flair to the film’s main action sequence, saying, “We had two great stunt coordinators on set and they put together this fight and it looks so real and we are blown away. Then we go into set to do it and he starts showing them things and throwing them around. That is why the fight scene looks so good.”
A personal point of pride for the filmmakers was shooting on location in Austin, with mostly local crews. “Look at the quality of the project, that is all the crew,” said Patten.
Grenier, a fulltime Texas resident, added: “I am a big proponent of the Austin film market. For selfish reasons I want to be able to go my family at the end of the day, and with that $2.5 billion incentive coming down from the Texas government I think we are going to start making more projects here.”
Self Custody was picked up for distribution by Inaugural Entertainment and is available now on Amazon Prime Video.
Patten has plans to expand the narrative into a feature film or even a television series. “It was my goal to make it feel like you watched a feature in 31 minutes,” said Patten of Self Custody. But it would be easy find more to talk about with a longer story. He added, “There are thousands of stories like this around bitcoin.”
This edition of THR Presents was sponsored by TBK Productions and Tucci & Company
Watch the conversation with Patten and his cast in the video above.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
