Robin Peters of production and multimedia company Dreamscape Design is set to direct his sophomore feature in Champaign this July, the thriller “Disconnect” for an under-$500,000 budget he raised from private investors.
Peters’ script is about a young woman who discovers a phone that allows her to call the past, learns that her mother was murdered, and uses the phone to try to prevent the murder. “Everyone she calls winds up dead in the present,” Peters said.
Los Angeles DP John Luker is shooting on an HD package that Peters purchased for last year’s Champaign-set Ed Asner/Judge Reinhold drama “The Crab Orchard,” which is in the final stages of postproduction at Fotokem’s Keep Me Posted in L.A. TV vet Michael Jacobs directed.
“Once ‘Crab Orchard’ is done, we have a lot of distributors interested,” said Peters, who wrote and produced. “I’m confident we can get commercial distribution.”
Peters is casting “Disconnect” himself. “Anything I can do myself, I do,” he said. “I’m confident in the chemistry of my last two films.” He said he’s signed Eddie Jones (“Seabiscuit”) and is in talks with Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Archer (“Patriot Games,” “Uncle Nino”) and Michelle Williams (“Dawson’s Creek,” “The Station Agent.”)
Peters founded Champaign-based Dreamscape Design in 1989. Clients include NASA, Acme Packaging, Altheimer & Gray, and Palmgren. He directed the feature doc “Fab 1: John Lennon’s Revolution” and founded Dreamscape Cinema in 2001.
Peters has wrapped post and is shopping “Link,” his 2001 narrative feature debut, an action thriller that he wrote, directed, produced and starred in. He’s developing his next picture, a drama about the Beatles’ flamboyant first manager Sam Leach, called “The Leach of Liverpool,” to shoot in England next year.
“Disconnect’s” Chicago crew includes UPM Chris Folkenn, production designer Wes Tabayoyong (“Bad Meat,”) gaffer Joey Domaracki (“The Evil One,”) and key grip Jim Andre of Film Branch.
– by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com
