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ICE Movie Awards

THE INTERVIEW

June, 2026

ANTHONY SALAMON

DEAD STATION

BEST SCREENPLAY

Anthony, tell us a bit more about yourself. Where does your desire to be a writer come from?

I have been a producer for about 25yrs and have always had the need to tell stories. My desire to write comes from that. From the idea that we are all story tellers. Like the cavemen and tribes of humans before us who used to tell stories around the campfire to keep knowledge alive, storytelling is the continuation of that ideal. Holding a mirror to the human endeavor and to the societal and human issues we face. That continually drives my passion to tell stories.

What is your background?

I am a producer. For over 25yrs I have produced films, TV, live events and stage productions.

Space has often been used in cinema as a metaphor for isolation and fear. What unique perspective did you want to bring to the genre?

I wanted to twist that idea. The cliche is that the isolation comes from being in space, a hostile environment, but with Dead Station it comes from the isolation of the mind, of not knowing if reality is real. Placing it such an isolating setting only heightens that tension and allowed me to lean into the psychological aspects of it even more than I had planned to. It’s something the film Event Horizon does really well, and hopefully I have achieved that same level of anxiety and tension with the audience.

The screenplay constantly blurs the line between reality and perception. How did you approach maintaining suspense and uncertainty throughout the script?

Having the main characters story flash back and forth from something that feels like a traditional, yet uncomfortable setting of a therapists office helps blur that line. Is this a flash back? Forward? What’s real? What’s not? Playing with time, space and emotion in that way allowed me to keep the suspense high and keep the audience as uncertain to their reality as the main characters.

Are there currently any plans or steps already underway to bring this screenplay to the screen, and how far along are you in that process?

Yes. I have done some pre work on the film to help it qualify for incentives, but at this stage we don’t have any cast or funding attached. I am always open to finding the right partners and making a film that has the best chance of distribution and recoupment.

As an unproduced script, how do you envision the visual atmosphere and tone of the film if it were brought to the screen?

Think the tone of Session 9 meets the visual atmosphere of the film Gravity or the TV series For All Mankind. The tone would need to be so eerie and unsettling that audiences felt the characters journey of uncertainty into what’s real and what’s not, but visually set against something that feels real, like the space station, but a space station that’s 10yrs from now. So not too different, but with some small technological advances.

Do you have an anecdote to share with us in particular?

I have so many anecdotes and stories to tell, that’s what I write. I also write a blog at my website, www.anthonysalamon.com/blog . That’s probably the best way to find out what’s on my mind and hear some of the stories from my life.