2-15-08
Three Chicago Films Premiere at SXSW
The South By Southwest Film Festival will premiere three Chicago features when it runs March 7-15.
Promotion, the comedy formerly titled Quebec, is the feature directorial debut of local screenwriter Steve Conrad, who wrote The Pursuit of Happyness and The Weather Man. John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott play supermarket assistant managers vying for their boss’s job. With Lily Taylor, Fred Armisen, and Gil Bellows. Steven A. Jones produced and the Weinstein Company financed the $6 million production through their Dimension Films division.
Joe Swanberg makes his fourth SXSW feature premiere in four years with Nights and Weekends. Swanberg co-stars with Greta Gerwig, who starred in his IFC First Take release Hannah Takes The Stairs, and in the Duplass Brothers’ Baghead, acquired at Sundance by Sony Pictures Classics. In Nights and Weekends, Gerwig and Swanberg play a long-distance couple facing a pregnancy scare.
Steve James and Peter Gilbert premiere their Kartemquin/IFC Production At The Death House Door. The film follows Texas death house Chaplain Carroll Pickett, from the first lethal injection execution in 1982, to the death of Carlos DeLuna, whose conviction was discredited by a Chicago Tribune investigation.
See sxsw.com.
Will Slocombe’s farcical thriller Crime Fiction will be released Feb. 19 by Anthem Pictures on DVD, video-on-demand and download. Screenwriter Jonathan Eliot stars as a frustrated novelist who gets a sudden shot at success if he’s willing to cover up and exploit a personal tragedy. Featuring Christian Stolte, Amy Sloan, Yasen Peyankov, Katrina Lenk, and in multiple roles, Dan Bakkedahl. Graham Ballou produced with Mark DeMoss and Jonathan Cowperthwait. Crime Fiction played the Slamdance, Vail, Crossroads and GenArt film festivals. See crimefictionpictures.com. Slocombe, Eliot, Ballou and DeMoss are at work on their next film, Tennis With Jesus, about the second coming of Christ at a tennis tournament. Tennis With Jesus shoots in the Portland, Oregon area this summer. John Jackson (Sideways) is casting.
Salvador Romelo Barcena of Knight Phoenix Productions begins principal photography in March on the thriller Fallen Souls. Barcena said he’s in talks with Max Von Sydow (to play a priest) and Jonathan Sadowski to act in the film. Steven Hiller is shooting. Ric Arthur stars as a factory worker searching for the killer of his wife and child. (Arthur also acted in my film The First Breath of Tengan Rei.) With Petrucia Finkler and Jared Martzel. Barcena shot some promotional scenes from the film in late 2006. See the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9xJ2eORftI.
Ricardo Islas of Alpha Studios is shooting the zombie feature Macumba in Louisiana. Starring Khotan, Adriana Cata-o, Nadia Rowinsky, Roberto Montesinos, and Monika Mu-oz. Jonathan Sebastian and Blaine McManus of Maxim Productions and Frederico Lapenda of Paradigm Pictures are producing. Distributor is Hannover House. As with Islas’ past films, he’s shooting simultaneous versions in Spanish and English. See alphaflix.com.
Mark Harris of 1555 Filmworks premieres his new feature I Used To Love Her, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at Chatham ICE Theaters, 210 W. 87th St. Mel Roberson and Toya Turner star. With Tiffany J. Curtis, Lil Rel, Simeon Henderson, Jaci Williamson, Ruby Gonzalez, Dori King, Damon William and BLT. See myspace.com/1555filmworks.
Elliott V. Porter’s romantic comedy All About the Ring has its theatrical debut Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at Chatham ICE Theaters. Starring Amelia Cunningham, Clinton Lewis, Pam Mack, Porter, Kelly Williamson, Twain Roberts and Annette Galloway. All About the Ring is a production of Porter’s N’2FILM’N, Inc. See myspace.com/n2filmn.
Derek “Pretty Boy” Dow’s debut feature Family Values returned to the Gene Siskel Film Center on Feb. 5 for a special screening presented by the Museum of Science and Industry, as part of their Black Creativity program. Dow, of Love Above All Productions, stars in Family Values with Ramon Anthony and Roderick Haygood, as three orphaned young men, each battling their own personal demons as they try to build a home together on the South Side. Family Values won the Audience Award at the Film Center’s Black Harvest Film Festival last year. See laap03.com
Mike Houlihan’s debut feature as writer, star and producer, the comedy Tapioca, premiered in Park City during Sundance, in the Park City Film Music Festival. A veteran stage actor and producer who has done supporting work in film and TV, Houlihan plays a cynical standup comic who is cursed by a homeless man he mistreats (Ben Vereen) and forced onto the street himself. With Tim Kazurinsky and Mark Borchardt. Houlihan’s son Paddy Houlihan directed. They wrote the script together. See tapiocathemovie.com.
Justin Naughton’s comedy RiffRaff, about lifeguards at North Avenue Beach, had its world premiere in the Muskegon Film Festival, Feb. 2 at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, 425 W. Western, Muskegon, Michigan. Robert Belushi, Ben Wells, Chryssie Whitehead, Katie O’Hagan and Joe Farina star. David J. Miller of Mindlight Films and John Otterbacher of Naughty Otter Productions produced. See www.mindlight.com/riffraff.html
Eric Battersby of Hollywood 27 Productions has completed post-production on his urban high school drama Pyrite, formerly titled Fool’s Gold. Battersby held a private screening in Oak Park Jan. 28 and has begun festival submissions. Nick Lewis, Jason Abustan, Arch Harmon and Traci Prince star in Pyrite, loosely based on Battersby’s own experience as a white student at a mostly black high school in Maywood. See hollywood27.com.
Rob Federighi of Lucca Productions, whose documentary StreetWise: The Movie, premiered on Ch. 11 in January, screened his previous film Holm Away From Home at the Park City Clothing Company during (but not in) the Sundance Film Festival. “Because a big part of my film is a hilarious history of the Stormy Kromer hat (Elmer Fudd for lack of a better description), the company asked if they could throw an event during Sundance at this big store,” Federighi said. He’s putting together a sitcom pilot. Details to be announced. See www.luccaproductions.com.
Ed M. Koziarski is in post-production on the feature film The First Breath of Tengan Rei. E-mail edk@homesickblues.com.