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McKool Productions is an independent film company in Maypearl, Texas, founded in 2026 by writer-director Michael Finn McKool. The studio makes small, character-driven genre films. Its first release, BASIC, is a sci-fi mystery short shooting in Ellis County, Texas in June 2026, with a Christmas 2026 premiere.
McKool Productions is an independent film company in Maypearl, Texas, founded in 2026 by writer-director Michael Finn McKool with producers Barrett Knetsch and Holden Montgomery. The studio makes small, character-driven genre films, sci-fi and mystery mostly, shot on real locations with tight casts and regional crew. Its first release, BASIC, is a sci-fi mystery short following three kids who find a working machine in a basement and decide to keep it to themselves. BASIC shoots in Ellis County, Texas in June 2026 and premieres Christmas 2026. A feature film follows.
McKool Productions is an independent film company based in Maypearl, Texas, thirty-five miles south of Dallas. The studio was founded in 2026 by writer-director Michael Finn McKool, with producers Barrett Knetsch and Holden Montgomery. The company makes small, character-driven genre films, sci-fi and mystery mostly, the kind that work in a quiet room. The approach is practical: tight casts, real locations, regional crew out of Ellis County and DFW, and gear rented by the day so every dollar shows up on screen. The studio's first release is BASIC, a sci-fi mystery short. The story follows three kids who find a still-working machine in a basement and decide to keep that to themselves. BASIC shoots in Ellis County, Texas, June 3 to 6, 2026, with a Christmas 2026 premiere and a festival run to follow. McKool is currently casting for non-union and emerging actors. A feature film follows BASIC. The studio plans to keep its slate small and shoot close to home, building each film off the last.
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For festival programmers, juries, distributors, and select press. Screeners go out to verified accounts. Trailer is public October 2026; the full short is screener-only until December 2026, then publicly available.