‘Searching’ Trailer: John Cho Uses The ‘Unfriended’ YouTube Approach To Find A Missing Child

Actor John Cho hasn’t chosen a dull role since he made a splash with the “Harold & Kumar” franchise. He’s received much acclaim for his work in independent films such as “Columbus” and “Gemini,” and his profile keeps climbing while working on big budget films like the “Star Trek” franchise reboot. Cho’s latest film, “Searching,” formerly “Search,” turned heads at Sundance for its innovative narrative as a thriller that unfolds entirely on a computer screen à la the Interwebs horror film “Unfriended.”

“I was really suspicious.” Cho told Kevin Smith at Sundance Film Festival this year (watch below), “I said, ‘I don’t think this can work.’ And, in fact, I turned him [director Aneesh Chaganty] down at first. ‘I don’t think this is doable.’ And then we met, and he convinced me that he could do it. And I watched it, and I gotta say, it works as a real movie. It’s a real, traditional movie with nontraditional parameters. It’s really interesting. Man, when he went through the Facebook pages – every time there’s a profile, it is extremely real. And so, the set design, the costume design, the makeup was really just in designing all these webpages.”

“Searching” premiered at the Next section of the Sundance Film Festival, which acknowledges up-and-coming filmmakers that have yet to leave their stamp on the medium of filmmaking. Cho’s instincts to take a chance on Chaganty paid off; “Searching” won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize on behalf of Chaganty and cowriter Sev Ohanian, and the Audience Award for Best of Next! on behalf of Chaganty.

Read the official synopsis below:

After David Kim (John Cho)’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

“Searching” costars Debra Messing, and will be released by Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics on August 3.