Bird’s-Eye Media set to shoot $2.5-3 million thriller “Roney’s Point” next summer

Mark Besozzi’s Bird’s-Eye Media, Inc. is “re-packaging” its thriller “Roney’s Point” for a $2.5-3 million 35mm shoot next summer.

Producer/director Besozzi began developing the project five years ago for an $8 million budget but the production stalled due to financing difficulties.

Besozzi and fellow producers Scott Kerschbaumer of Pittsburgh (“Saloonatics”) and Shari Tudor of Bird’s-Eye have recently entered talks with a new group of executive producers to pull together financing.

They’re in talks with bankable talent to star in the film.

“The time is just right for our movie right now,” Besozzi said. “The script holds up to a lot of the thrillers out there, and the actors we’re talking to can bring it theatrical.”

Mark A. Besozzi of Bird’s-Eye Media, Inc. Photo by angiephoto.com.

Besozzi said cast previously attached to “Roney’s Point,” who may stay with the project, included George Romero regular Tom Savini, M. Emmet Walsh (“Blood Simple”), Cloris Leachman (“The Facts of Life”), and Robert Costanzo (“Die Hard 2”).

The script, by Kenneth Mader (“Carnivore”), follows an escape of four inmates from the titular asylum, and the efforts of a Pittsburgh talk show host and detective to solve the ensuing series of grisly murders.

“It’s been described as ‘Halloween’ meets ‘Silence of the Lambs,'” Besozzi said. “It’s raining 80% of the time. It’s very dark and gritty.”

Bird’s-Eye plans a 35-day shoot for next summer, including three weeks in Pittsburgh, two and a half in West Virginia, and one and a half here.

“Roney’s Point is an actual place in West Virginia, an asylum used for tuberculosis patients in the 20s and 30s ? they were basically put there and left to die,” Besozzi said. “The place burned down in the late 60s but the shell is still there and it’s considered one of the most haunted places in the Ohio River Valley. We’ll more than likely shoot there, but we also have another asylum picked out in Athens, Ohio that can double for it.”

On Sept. 25 Besozzi starts production on his debut feature, “For Steppers Only,” a low-budget DV urban dance drama co-produced with Batie Enterprise. After “Steppers” Besozzi will shoot the “Chicago Tone and Cardio” program for Ch. 62.

He’s at work on the script for the horror feature “Blood of the Claw,” and early next year he’ll produce the horror picture “The Charnal Gospel” with Indiana writer Ted Mowery, based on the H.P. Lovecraft story.

Reach Besozzi at 847/466-2697 or see www.birds-eyemediainc.com.

? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com