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| 90/94 Pictures partners (from left) Henzel Francisco, John Heinze, Chad Larys, Kevin Bruce, Matthew Heinze, and Joe Mocarski. |
KGB Agent 57 Productions is putting their lab coats on the auction block and starting over.
The creative team behind 2001’s “Present Perfect” is launching a new company, 90/94 Pictures. 90/94’s inaugural short, “Case of Illness,” went into production Dec. 13 and will shoot intermittently through January.
“We see the film through the eyes of this man who’s very paranoid and schizophrenic, and he’s being followed by these strange characters who want to know what’s inside this case he’s carrying,” said producer/editor Kevin Bruce. “We’ve been wanting to put this together for awhile, but it wasn’t until recently that we figured out what we wanted to be in the case.”
KGB had stalled recently in their efforts to raise the $1.5 million budget for their dark workplace battle-of-the-sexes comedy “Severance.”
“We needed to pay our company dues, but our mailing address had moved, and by the time we got all the paperwork, the company was dissolved,” Bruce said. “It was a relief in that it gave us an opportunity to regroup and restart. We feel renewed and ready to go.”
So 90/94 is focusing on smaller projects in the short term, with plans for another short, “Chester,” an expressionistic breakdancing picture to shoot in spring or summer.
“?Severance’ is still close to us, it’s all budgeted and storyboarded, we could start tomorrow if we got the money, but it’s more on the side while we make ?Case of Illness,'” Bruce said.
KGB was founded to produce “Present Perfect,” an “unromantic comedy” by Matthew Heinze, who is also the writer/director of “Case of Illness” and “Severance.” “Present Perfect” was first runner up at the 2002 Split Screen Film Festival in Lexington, Kentucky, and also played the Hollywood Underground and Black Point fests.
Bruce and his producing partner Chad Larys are hosting a fundraiser Jan. 8 at Irish Eyes, 2914 N. Lincoln. Bruce and Larys will tend bar, and auction items including, in an act of symbolic rebirth, their trademark KGB lab coats.
“We want to get the company back on its feet, and we also want actors and crew to bring out their headshots and reels,” Bruce said. “We hope this will be a networking thing, and also a celebration of the Chicago film community at the same time. We want to keep the community strong, we want to make as many films here as we can.”
“Case of Illness” stars Matthew Harris. DP is Brett Grafton.
See 90-94.com ? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com.
