Take 2: September 2018

THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT starring Sam Elliot and Aidan Turner premiered in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival. Many in our region worked on this film including Executive Producer Douglas Trumbull along with one of my favorite acting canines Silas Archer Gustav (a Critter Casting staple). We’ve read the reviews from the Montreal and London screenings and we all want to see it. Everyone I’ve spoken to or read about who has seen it says “I just hope it gets seen.” I’m told it is a very different movie. The story is about a legendary American war veteran
who was recruited to hunt the mythical creature Bigfoot.

So, stand by for a an IMAGINE Boston premiere of THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT sometime this fall.

The New England production industry has really heated up as we head into fall the location business is back, especially in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. There are crews working everywhere all over the Commonwealth. There’s so much I don’t know where to start except that it is
all good. And the real good news is that crews working now know what they will be working on next. I’ve heard stories of daily auditions for actors.

Castle Rock has been renewed for a second season, SMILF just wrapped its second season and there’s more TV series in the works. City on the Hill pilot has been picked up for series and we have our fingers crossed it will come back to Massachusetts, after all, it is set in Charlestown.

NOS4A2 began shooting in Rhode Island. It’s AMC’s new supernatural horror series. Zachary Quinto has been cast as the lead and Ashleigh Cumming has been cast opposite the STAR TREK star. NOS4A2’s
executive director and show runner, Jami O’Brien is …”over the moon to be working with such a phenomenal cast and creative team” calling Joe Hill’s book, “rich, imaginative and exciting.” An additional TV series in Rhode Island is expected, but it’s too early to announce.

I visited with Gary Crossen and New England Studios while HAMELINS were still in pre-production. There was a sign on the foyer wall, deliver here to Netflix untitled TV series. But, now the title is known and the production is in full swing for ten episodes. It will occupy two of New England Studios’four studios for the remainder of the year and perhaps beyond. All four studios are filled up and scheduled well into the future.

Titled HAMELINS in its pilot order, the show follows a group of teens who arrive home after a field trip is cut short, only to find themselves trapped within the limits of a city with its entire population missing. Together, they must establish a hierarchy and a survival plan.

Kathryn Newton, star of HBO hit Big Little Lies and prestige films like THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI and the upcoming Julia Roberts’ film BEN IS BACK, will star in Hamelins billed as “Lord of the Flies” meets “Lost.”

And we are looking at movies galore, JUNGLELAND shooting in the Fall River/ New Bedford area is about to wrap up. THE SOUND OF METAL just wrapped.

Greta Gerwig’s LITTLE WOMEN is in preproduction in and around Boston chosen for its authenticity. The production originally scouted Canada; suffice to say were genuinely pleased it chose Massachusetts. Emma Watson will play Meg, Saoirse Ronan is cast as Jo, Eliza Scanlen as Beth March, Florence Pugh as Amy and Meryl Streep is Aunt March, a role developed and enhanced
for Meryl. Cameras will start rolling the end of September.

Also in Pre-pro is WONDERLAND, a Robert B. Parker novel featuring Spenser of Spenser for Hire TV series, who returns to Boston’s criminal underworld to unravel a twisted murder conspiracy. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Spenser and my wish is that this the precursor of another TV series or
sequel after sequel. Parker wrote such good true detective stories set in the greater Boston area. Peter Berg (PATRIOTS DAY, MILE 22) will direct WONDERLAND. Berg is partial to working here.

Wait there’s more, EVE produced by and starring Jessica Chastain will soon be shooting in Boston. Voltage Pictures, alongside Chastain’s company Freckle Films announced principal photography
is expected to begin before the end of the September. Tate Taylor (GIRL ON THE TRAIN, PRETTY UGLY PEOPLE) will direct. Voltage’s Jonathan Deckter is also onboard, serving as an executive producer.

In this issue we find out that Dennis Serpone (see cover story) will be working with the Murphy Brothers on their independent film RUNNING WAVES being prepared for the Falmouth, MA area. Lenny Clarke and Jordan Tofalo (SWEENEY KILLING SWEENEY) are now working with the Murphy brothers on
that film..

Entertainment attorney Elaine Rogers told IMAGINE she has been working on a major studio film that will be shooting in Massachusetts this fall but she can’t disclose the project at this time as she is under a confidentiality agreement. She is also working with writers Freddie Catalfo and Morgan Dudley and producer Kris Myer on a film they have in development called OIL AND WATER. It is based on a true David-and-Goliath story with a strong female protagonist. Read more about that in this issue.

John Stimpson’s movie GHOST LIGHT shot in and around Worcester is scheduled for its premiere at the LA Film Festival later this month. Read all about it in this issue along with a special screening for Nathan Suher’s HIGHER METHODS at the historic Foxboro Theater.

Coming next is our American Film Market (AFM) Special Edition. IMAGINE is looking for stories about New England Film and TV series projects in any stage of production from concept to completion that are looking for anything you might find at AFM including attachments of all kinds from cast to directors, a production company, financing and distribution.

Email publisher@imaginenews.com telling me about your project and what you are looking for.

The American Film Market (AFM®) is the world’s largest motion picture business event. Over 7,000 industry leaders from more than eighty countries converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making,screenings, conferences, networking and parties. Participants include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors,
financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, the world’s press and all those who provide services to the motion picture industry.

Unlike a film festival, the AFM is a marketplace – with over 200,000 square feet of exhibition space – where production and distribution deals are closed. In just eight days, more than US$1 billion in deals will be sealed – on both completed films and those in every stage of development
and production. I wouldn’t miss AFM!