Mystery, horror, and romance come together in Cinestate’s first “ear book” called The Narrow Caves. The Dallas-born company released it on Audible this week. 

Deep Vellum owner and Dallas-based publisher Will Evans and film producer Dallas Sonnier are spearheading Cinestate, which they hope will help set a new standard in the entertainment world. 

Its “ear books” will go beyond a typical audiobook getting the film treatment with an original score, professional sound design, and actors reading parts along with a narrator. 

The three-hour audio story, Narrow Caves, is just the beginning as Cinestate wants to “reinvent Dallas as a city where movies get made,” Sonnier told the Dallas Observer. 

“We’re going to make the company a really international brand from the start.” 

Will Evans

The 112-year-old Ambassador Hotel in downtown Dallas is about to be converted into apartments. But before they do that, Cinestate used the old setting for a horror film called Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, the Observer reported. The campy film, inspired the long-running franchise of the same name, involves puppets going around killing people.

Other upcoming projects include the action-thriller, Brawl in Cell Block 99, starring Vince Vaughn and Don Johnson. This summer, Vaughn will team up with Mel Gibson to film another Cinestate project, Dragged Across Concrete. 

“We think it’s crazy that book publishers and filmmakers have never really teamed up before,” Evans told the Observer. “We’re going to make the company a really international brand from the start. We want to be in New York, LA, London, Shanghai, and Dubai.”

Dallas Innovates, every day