Above The End Vertical: The Birth of a New Cinematic Language
Hollywood Influence is currently developing a new generation of cinematic vertical series and immersive storytelling formats designed for global digital audiences and next-generation platforms.
Behind the initiative is French producer and founder of Hollywood Influence, Gaël Bonnel-Sanchez, who is producing Above The End Vertical while leading the studio’s expansion into premium vertical cinema through its newly launched division, 9:16 Studios.
The ambition behind 9:16 Studios is clear: to establish one of the first large-scale production models dedicated specifically to cinematic vertical storytelling, with the long-term objective of producing up to one premium vertical film or series project per month.
Above The End Vertical: Why Hollywood Influence Chose Vertical Cinema
Originally conceived as a traditional feature film, Above The End evolved into something far more aligned with the way modern audiences consume stories today.
Rather than forcing a next-generation cinematic experience into a traditional format, Hollywood Influence made the strategic decision to prioritize the development of the project as a premium vertical cinematic event series — built from the ground up specifically for mobile-first viewing.
“For years, the industry tried to adapt cinema to phones by simply cropping images,” says Gaël Bonnel-Sanchez. “We wanted to do the opposite: create a true cinematic language designed natively for vertical viewing.”
The transition was not about reducing ambition — it was about increasing immersion.
At the same time, the project’s cinematic scope and production approach remain fully compatible with traditional widescreen filmmaking standards. While the studio’s current creative and strategic priority is focused on the vertical format, Above The End continues to be developed with the flexibility to evolve across multiple cinematic formats depending on future distribution opportunities and partnerships.
A More Intimate and Immersive Experience
The vertical format allows audiences to feel physically closer to characters, emotions, and environments. In Above The End Vertical, this intimacy becomes essential to the experience.
The story unfolds through survival, tension, psychological pressure, and human emotion in the middle of global collapse. The vertical frame intensifies proximity, isolation, and realism, creating a uniquely immersive sensation impossible to replicate through conventional widescreen storytelling alone.
Hollywood Influence believes the future of premium entertainment will not simply belong to traditional cinema or social content — but to a new category positioned between both worlds: cinematic vertical storytelling.
Cinema for the Way the World Watches Today
The decision also reflects the reality of modern media consumption.
A new generation now experiences stories primarily through mobile devices, social platforms, and vertical interfaces. Rather than treating this evolution as a limitation, Hollywood Influence sees it as an opportunity to reinvent cinematic grammar itself.
The objective is not to imitate short-form content, but to elevate vertical storytelling to feature-film production standards.
Above The End Vertical: A New Kind of Production
Developed in partnership with Zephalto — pioneers in stratospheric flight and collaborators of the European Space Agency and Airbus — the series will include sequences filmed at the edge of space, delivering one of the most ambitious vertical productions ever attempted.
The story, intentionally kept highly confidential, unfolds as a grounded survival thriller rooted in a terrifyingly plausible reality.
“It’s not science fiction anymore — it feels frighteningly close to our world,” says Gaël.
But Above The End Vertical is more than a series. It represents a new production philosophy and a blueprint for how Hollywood Influence intends to approach entertainment in the years ahead.
Merging Art, Technology and Real-World Innovation
Through collaborations with Zephalto and Eat 4 Good — a food-tech company that has distributed more than one billion meals worldwide — Hollywood Influence aims to redefine how brands, innovation, and storytelling can organically coexist inside cinematic universes.
Elite Risk Management and Global Infrastructure
The production is further supported by Straife, an international strategic advisory group composed of former White House, intelligence, military, and security experts, contributing to global compliance, operational safety standards, and intelligence-informed production planning.
Building Worlds Instead of Chasing Trends
Even before entering full pre-production, Above The End Vertical has already attracted growing interest from talent, strategic partners, and investors — reflecting confidence not only in the project itself, but in the studio’s broader vision for the future of cinematic entertainment.
“We’re not trying to follow trends,” says Gaël. “We’re trying to help define what comes next.”
With Above The End Vertical and the launch of 9:16 Studios, Hollywood Influence positions itself at the intersection of cinema, technology, fashion, culture, and next-generation storytelling — helping shape the emergence of premium vertical cinema as a true entertainment category of its own.
