Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget spent years building virtual worlds where users could create content, interact with brands and become part of the experience. Now, the co-founders of blockchain gaming platform The Sandbox want to see whether the same approach can work in Hollywood.
The pair are backing Hollywood Hills, an upcoming independent horror film from first-time feature director Benjamin Rozovas. Madrid and Borget are serving as lead investors and partners on the project, while The Sandbox is providing marketing and community support. Their goal is to build an interactive community around the film before it ever releases.
“We’re launching a movie before the movie is made,” Madrid said. “The script is written and casting is underway, but the world, the mystery and the community already exist.”
For the founders, the project represents an attempt to apply lessons learned from more than a decade in gaming to an <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/10/26/insight26-brings-the-uk-post-and-vfx-industry-together-to-reframe-sector-value/” title=”INsight’26 Brings the UK Post and VFX Industry Together to Reframe Sector Value”>industry where financing and audience development remain persistent challenges.
From virtual worlds to filmmaking
Madrid and Borget first worked together at mobile gaming studio Pixowl, which they co-founded in 2011. The company developed games based on established entertainment properties before being acquired by Animoca Brands in 2018.
They subsequently built The Sandbox into a blockchain-based gaming platform where users can create, own and monetize virtual experiences.
Those experiences shaped their approach to Hollywood Hills, particularly the idea that an audience can play an active role in developing and sustaining an entertainment property.
“The Sandbox taught us two things: how to work with IP and how to build community,” Madrid said. “We’ve partnered with hundreds of brands across fashion, art and film. With Hollywood Hills, we’re building our own IP and bringing the community in from day one.”
The founders are betting that the engagement generated by virtual worlds can translate into support for an independent film, potentially reducing the need to build an audience from scratch when it reaches theaters.
There is some precedent for horror projects developing substantial online followings before their theatrical debuts. Recent horror films such as Backrooms and Obsession demonstrated the commercial potential of stories that build an audience before a theatrical release, as their creators had already built up community support on the internet.
Building a mystery before the cameras roll
The team has developed an interactive experience around the film’s fictional universe.
Hollywood Hills follows passengers on a Los Angeles sightseeing tour called Dead & Famous, which visits locations associated with celebrity deaths. During the journey, the bus takes an unexpected detour into a supernatural underworld connected to the city’s hidden history.
The story explores Hollywood’s relationship with fame, death and the enduring commercial value of celebrity images.
The campaign’s interactive elements are designed around that premise, including digital collectibles called Hollywood Hills Villas, which the filmmakers say contain clues to the film’s underlying mystery.
Supporters can combine information from different Villas, follow clues embedded in campaign materials and continue investigating through a dedicated Discord community called the Black Fire Archive.
An alternate reality game on X also distributes fragments of the story, encouraging participants to develop theories before the film has been shot.
“The Villas are not simply collectibles,” Borget said. “They’re pieces of evidence, carrying clues that invite people to investigate, form theories and become part of the mythology.”
The approach reflects the founders’ familiarity with Web3 communities, although digital collectibles remain a contentious proposition following years of NFT speculation.
“People remember NFTs as speculation,” Borget said. “We’re using digital collectibles the way they should be used: to build a community, tell a story and give fans a real way into the world.”
Whether audiences outside the existing blockchain community will find those features appealing remains an open question.
An experiment with wider ambitions
The project brings together an international production team led by Rozovas, a former film journalist who notes his previous work includes games based on entertainment properties.
The creative team says principal photography is currently scheduled for late 2027 in Spain, with a targeted release in 2029.
Borget said the team also intends to use AI tools to improve production efficiency, while maintaining live-action filming and human performers.
Beyond the film itself, the creators are developing plans for a comic prequel, podcasts and a game that would expand its fictional universe.
For Madrid and Borget, the larger ambition is to establish a repeatable approach to independent filmmaking, where community engagement, financing and intellectual property development begin long before production.
That model will face several tests, from attracting investors and sustaining their interest through a lengthy production cycle to delivering a commercially successful film.
For now, Hollywood Hills offers an early experiment in whether the participatory culture of online gaming can translate into a
Its success will ultimately depend on whether the community being built around the project remains engaged long enough to become an audience when the film finally arrives.
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