Val Kilmer, Armand Assante, Eric Roberts, Megan Brown and Patrick Muldoon have climbed aboard the indie suspense thriller The Steam Experiment, which marks a return to directing for its Cinepro Pictures producer Philippe Martinez.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the feature revolves around six people trapped and terrorized in an urban Turkish bathhouse.

Kilmer plays a former university professor who overheats his hostages to prove that humans will devolve into chaos under the pressures of global warming. He tells a detective (Assante) that their location will be revealed if his hypothesis is printed as the local paper's front-page headline.

The six potential victims are a former pro football player (Roberts), a former actress (Brown), a nurse (Muldoon), a waitress (Eve Mauro), a restaurateur (Quinn Duffy) and a writer (Cordelia Reynolds). As temperatures rise, the desperate detainees fight for survival.

Rob Malkani (Day Zero) wrote the original screenplay.

The film is set in Grand Rapids, Mich., and recently began principal photography in the city.