IN ITS ONLINE RELEASE, director Eddie O’Keefe’s short film, The Ghosts, garnered 30,000 hits in two weeks. It’s a dreamy, black and white, rock-infused ‘50s-style tale of a girl caught between her preppy boyfriend and the romantic leader of a greaser gang.
“We have released the film online in advance of our festival run in hopes of tapping into the vast network of blogs and all the niche audiences that our film appeals to,” producer Matthew Mandarino says.
“We had a sense that our main audience was not stuck in a theater and part of the old media, but part of the social media and blogs which have been following a trend of idealizing 50s imagery, girls, guns, and motorcycles.”
O’Keefe, of production company The Teenage Head, wrote the script with Jack Guimon. Kate Cobb, Alexander Koch and Guimon star. See facebook.com/theghostsfilm
PRODUCTION ON THRILLER THEATER, a feature comedy from producer Mike Olson of Untitled Creative Group is 90% done.
They’ve been shooting since last summer in Chicago and Wisconsin and plan to finish production this summer.
Olson says the film is “about three good friends who bring their love of poking fun at cheesy horror films to the local TV airwaves of a small Midwestern college town, only to find their future rests in the hands of a pizza delivery guy.”
Olson wrote the script with Steven Hill, Robert Warnock, and Nick Seidler. Hill, Warnock, Benjamin Nicholson, Aliza Skolnik, Jennifer Ureste, and Nick Thompson star. Olson and Thompson are producing.
JEFF-WINNING ACTOR Daniel Kuhlman of Breakwall Pictures shoots a short version this April of the dark fantasy Rose White, a feature he hopes to make next year. Erin Breen, Deneen Melody and Kuhlman star.
The film is based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. They’re shooting on the Canon 1D and plan to shoot the feature on the Red camera. Tinycore Pictures is coproducing. See facebook.com/rosewhitemovie
YEAR-OLD HESPERIDIAN PRODUCTIONS – the fashion and event company of Kyle Thomas, Claire Ann, and Jessica Chvala – are developing their first short film and a two-minute promotional video this spring. They’re looking for writers until April 1 for the short, which will address the theme of immortality and will shoot in early summer.
The promo “will be post-apocalyptic and play upon the idea that divine inspiration can manifest even within the darkest of places,” says Thomas, head of Hesperidian’s film department.
They’re producing a fashion show May 7 to launch the spring line of Gypsy Couture, with plans for a summer runway show and a showcase for Gypsy Couture’s fall line. See facebook.com/hesperidianproductions
THE TALKING PICTURES FESTIVAL of Evanston, April 14-17, offers 22 indie film programs from around the world, many of them co-presented with Northwestern University.
Two Chicago-made docs are in the lineup: Nancy Kelly’s Trust: Second Acts in Young Lives highlights the wonderful work that Chicago’s Albany Park Theater Project does with teens; Burning Ice, about global warming, was directed by Peter Gilbert and co-produced by Adam Singer and Zak Piper.
