Five easy pitches: In this seasonal series, we showcase MovieMaker readers ready to get rolling this summer and fall.
The Lost Year
Project Description: After a rough breakup, Charlie Monahan dives headfirst into the world of online dating. Guided by his charismatic best friend, Rufus, Charlie meets the charmingly complicated Maggie Mae. Quickly learning the differences between expectations and reality, Charlie’s forced to confront the challenges of maintaining a relationship in the digital age. In an era where everyone’s connected, Charlie has never felt more apart.
Principal Photography: Summer 2016
Location: Victoria, Texas
Still Seeking: Post-production financing
Contact: Ryan O’Leary ([email protected], 848/391-1782)
Visit: filmexchange.org
The Man from Kathmandu Vol. 1
Project Description: A young, disaffected Muslim man travels to Kathmandu on his way to join ISIS in Syria and reconnects with his roots in the Himalayan nation, where he’s drawn into a moral battle that his grandfather and childhood sweetheart are involved in against a powerful local politician. He realizes some battles are fought in the heart and mind, and this changes him. However, the Americans were tracking him all along. He is forced into continuing the journey undercover on an extraction mission with a partner in the second volume, in which he ultimately sacrifices his life for America.
Principal photography: Summer 2016
Location: Kathmandu and Los Angeles
Genre: Martial Arts/Action-Adventure
Still seeking: $350,000, lighting and sound packages, visual effects team, post-production package in L.A.
Contact: Pema Dhondup ([email protected])
Visit: themanfromkathmandu.com
God Made Man
Project Description: Leading double lives and seeking redemption, three forsaken souls violently collide while drifting through an urban purgatory. Rhett, a homeless transgender man tired of hopping from couch-to-couch, craves stability and acceptance. His friend Doyle, a gay drag queen who turns tricks for rent money, hatches a reckless blackmail scheme, but needs Rhett’s help to pull it off. Their target is Ted, a corrupt lawyer running for district attorney, consumed by his sociopathic tendencies and desperation to secretly sustain his illegal transgressions. Over one cold winter night, these three disparate people are shockingly changed forever.
Principal Photography: Completed
Post Completion: December 2016 (expected)
Location: Austin, Texas
Still Seeking: $18,750, festival submission fees and travel, DCP transfer, promotional fees, post sound mastering and color grading. Investors (We raised over $16,000 for pre-production and production through Kickstarter, fundraisers, donations, investors and our own money; now we need finishing funds).
Contact: Nate Locklear ([email protected], 512/496-4194)
Visit: facebook.com/godmademanfilm
Social Redemption
Project Description: A hopeless romantic, two aspiring rappers, a tweaky dimwit and a sassy bartender dodge personal responsibilities and disastrous mishaps while attempting to attend a birthday party across town before the night ends.
Principal Photography: Fall 2016
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Still Seeking: $200,000, lighting and sound package, camera package, practical special effects, stunts, post sound mastering and color correction, production crew.
Contact: David Himes ([email protected], 480/766-8918)
Visit: socialredemptionmovie.com
An Absence of Angels
Project Description: An amateur documentarian is interested in solving the mystery surrounding the supposed haunted house in the neighborhood where he grew up. The home’s inhabitants have rarely been seen and stories have circulated through the years about what has been going on behind those walls. The documentarian hopes to discover the truth.
Principal Photography: Fall 2016
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Still Seeking: Investors, location (house that will act as the main location) and cast
Contact: Jeff Swafford ([email protected], 310/710-1017)
Visit: woodlandentertainment.net MM
To be considered for future editions of this department, complete this form. See our previous Winter 2016 edition here.