A group of graduates from University of Chicago, not exactly a hotbed of filmmaking, earn high marks for their indie feature that began while they were at school and grew in budget and scope.
Now completed, the dark comedy, “Crime Fiction,” was led by producer Graham Ballou, who works as an assistant editor at Optimus.
Director was Will Slocombe, who had a double major of political science and cinema studies. He presently works as a paralegal.
The story is about James, a struggling novelist, who kills his girlfriend, Hillary, a successful writer, and then becomes famous after publishing a controversial novel about his crime.
The producers call it equal parts “comedic metafilm genre” and “Hitchcock thriller.”
Writer and star is Jonathan Eliot (“After the Harvest,” “Lost and Delirious”), who had been an actor in Toronto before attending the U of C as a PhD candidate in comparative literature.
To cast the 36 speaking roles, the producers worked primarily through talent agent Peter Forster, then of Arlene Wilson Talent Management.
