“Cup of My Blood” got an L.A. reception that was “universally enthusiastic” last week when filmmakers Lance Catania and co-producers Noel Olken and Kenny Nilsson shopped the feature to around 30 studios, acquisitions executives, producers reps and studios.
And this was just the reception to their two-minute trailer. “If the finished movie is as good as the trailer, we were told, it’ll sell in five minutes flat,” said Catania, “Blood’s” writer, director, DP and executive producer. “We had three offers to sell it and make a multi-picture deal, but we don’t want to sell it too soon.” And a producers rep is also courting them.
Catania spent three years jelling the story and getting it from script to screen. “It’s a supernatural story about faith,” he described. “We tell people the tone of the movie is like ?The Ring,’ crossed with ?The Sixth Sense’ and ?The Exorcist’ thrown in.” It stars Danny Sullivan and Janina Gavankar and has 25 speaking roles.
The 90-minute movie, shot last December for 19 days in 24P, and financed by X-Ray, is still being edited by freelancer Salvatore Pecoraro. After the positive response they got in L.A. the filmmakers have “kicked into overdrive to get the feature edited” and into action so we can take the next step and make a deal.”
Although Catania has been a director/cameraman of commercials and corporate for 20 years, “Cup of My Blood” is his first feature. He and X-Ray partner, Gene Cosentino, previously owned Renaissance Productions after a lengthy stint at Northwest Teleproductions (now Broadview).
X-Ray is located at 1400 W. Hubbard in large loft space that encompasses a kitchen studio, an insert stage, an edit suite with Final Cut Pro, Discreet Edit and an Avid, and offices. Ch. 7 is their main commercial client.
“We’re very confident of the movie selling,” Cantania noted. “Nothing’s for sure, of course. But once this one goes, we’ve got three more films in the hopper ready to go.”
Catania, Olken, Nilsson and X-Ray can be reached at 312/738-9729.
