Imagined production

High Couch of Silistra

1980 · 1h 58m · R · Adventure · Sci-Fi · Fantasy · Drama

Director: John Badham
Studio: Universal Pictures (imagined)
Writers: Janet Morris (novel); John Badham; David Ambrose
Budget: $15 million (imagined)

Fan art — not IMDb

Faux IMDb listing

This screenshot is original fan art imagining how a title page might look. It is not from IMDb. IMDb has no such film. Cast images are invented. Some mock-up details (rating, character names, box office) disagree with the archive notes below — treat the picture as a prop, not a database record.

Tap to enlarge · Fan art only · No such title exists

Synopsis

On Silistra, fertility is power. Estri holds the High Couch of Astria until a holographic message from her dead mother reveals an off-world father and charges her with a chaldra: find him, or watch the world dwindle.

She leaves the Well. Status is stripped. She crosses markets, rival houses, and wastelands; forms a volatile bond with the Slayer Sereth; and follows the trail beyond the known stars into a hall of bronze light. What begins as a search for a father becomes a decision about whether a ruined world deserves a future.

This outline is a fan condensation of Morris’s novel, shaped as an R-rated 1980 adventure — painted mattes, practical sets, and a third act that stays mysterious rather than fully explained.

Official unofficial

Theatrical posters

One-sheets that were never printed. Style A hangs first; later campaigns can join the rail. Fan art only — no such film exists.

Imagined 1980 campaign

Imagined lobby cards

A ten-card 11×14 theater set that was never printed. Original character art — not photographs of the imagined 1980 cast. Fan art only; no such film exists.

Fan trivia

Longer invented IMDb-style notes — quotes, goofs, score, reviews — live in Did you know?

Imagined as a June 1980 Universal release, shot in Spain and the Mojave with Pinewood interiors.
The holographic cube was a practical in-camera gag — front-projection on a silver prop, not opticals.
The MPAA (in this fan history) demanded cuts to the Well sequences to keep an R.
No such picture was made. These notes are tribute, not production records.