Projects



The Commune

Independent thriller feature. Completed 2008.

TheCommuneMovie.com
IMDb

A materialistic teen investigates her deadbeat father’s financial involvement in a bohemian cult, and discovers a frightening world of rituals, sex, and murder.

Jenny (Chauntal Lewis), a materialistic teen, is forced to spend the summer with her estranged father (Stuart G. Bennett) on his bohemian commune. With her every move monitored by security cameras and creepy residents, Jenny escapes to town and meets the mysterious and dangerous Puck (Emmy winner David Lago). Deciding to stick out the summer to explore romance with her bad boy, Jenny searches the commune for financial records on her father that could force him to drop his custody suit. What Jenny finds instead is a disturbing decades-old conspiracy that will endanger her, and the lives of those who try to help her. The kind of dark legacy that could make a girl literally blind herself to the truth forever.


This film was a challenge with its low budget, abbreviated pre-pro and accelerated production schedule. By assembling a talented team and keeping the mood light, we pulled off a visually stunning homage to 70s psychological thrillers.

Look for THE COMMUNE on the 2008/2009 festival circuit. Rights still available in all territories.

Pistoleras

Independent feature. Pre-production 2008.

PistolerasMovie.com

Four girls ditch school for a surf trip in Baja. When one gets kidnapped and sold into the underworld skin trade, they must grapple with inner demons, life lessons and legendary bad guys to save their friend and get home alive. “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" meets "Thelma and Louise."

Written and directed by Elisabeth Fies, (Associate Producer, Conventioneers, 2006 Independent Spirit Award winner), produced by Heidi Hornbacher, PISTOLERAS is a high octane coming-of-age thrill ride. It’s a story about female empowerment told with a smart, kick-ass attitude. With an accompanying graphic novel, illustrated by Charles Yoakum (BATMAN), and a corporate tie-in with IMPACT Personal Safety, PISTOLERAS is poised for a multi-media marketing assault on the senses.

PISTOLERAS will speak with an unprecedented frankness, rarely seen in today’s media, about sexuality and violence against women. The normally depressing topic of sex trafficking will be addressed seriously in a plot chock-full of humor, action, and quirkiness that begs for repeat viewings and cult movie status. The teens in PISTOLERAS are strong, courageous, and fully embrace what it means to be female.

Much like “Kill Bill” successfully integrated iconic Kung Fu characters and set pieces and brought them to a new generation of movie-goers, PISTOLERAS will honor the tradition of the Almeria Spaghetti Westerns of greats like Leone and Corbucci and introduce their most appealing elements to today’s audiences.

PISTOLERAS will demonstrate techniques from the most effective self-defense course in history. 1 in 3 women will be assaulted in her lifetime. After taking the IMPACT self defense course, a woman’s chances of being assaulted drops to 1 in 30. All four of our lead actresses will complete the IMPACT basics course, and actual instructors will perform the fighting stunts in Pistoleras. Given the above statistics, it is our belief that demonstrating these self-defense strategies in Pistoleras will save lives.

Fixing Emma
Independent Romantic Comedy Feature. Pre-production 2008.

Having nearly destroyed her family’s Italian restaurant, Emma sneaks to Italy determined right her wrongs.  When she discovers that the makers of their irreplaceable olive oil have stopped production, she must inspire the irascible Francesco to reinvent his business in order to save both their family legacies. But Francesco sees right through her restaurateur act and challenges her to follow her own dream and leave him out of it. Fixing Emma is a story about facing your fears and finding yourself. “French Kiss” meets “In Her Shoes“.

Written and directed by Heidi Hornbacher, (Producer, THE COMMUNE), FIXING EMMA is a coming of age romantic comedy. The script is a top 20 finisher in Creative Screenwriting’s Expo, a quarterfinalist in both the AAA screenwriting contest and Fade In Magazine screenwriting contest for 2007.

FIXING EMMA explores themes of living up to family expectations vs. following your heart; a yearning to connect to family and to make a difference. Everyone can relate to the struggle to find one’s place in the world and even within one’s own family. Everyone knows what it feels like to let down someone you love and the desire to make amends. Everyone understands falling in love and having it get messy. Emma’s fear of failure yet wish to dream is universal.

Italy continues to be a draw both visually and emotionally for filmgoers. The beautiful setting and honest treatment of its culture will captivate audiences. With no explicit sex or violence, FIXING EMMA calls back to the great screwball comedies of the Golden Age of cinema like BRINGING UP BABY and NINOTCHKA. FIXING EMMA will show a new generation of film goers that you don’t need gratuitous sex to have a powerful love story.

Pretend You Love Each Other
Independent Feature, Development 2008

Billed as a dysfunctional family road movie, PRETEND YOU LOVE EACH OTHER follows the Harris family on an ill-conceived last ditch effort to escape daily life.

No one in the Harris family is pleased when Ted announces summering at his brother’s cabin in Minnesota. His cosmopolitan wife has been contemplating divorce, his son can’t seem to win Ted’s approval, his near-sighted daughter can’t adjust to her ridiculous new glasses and his step-daughter hates everyone and everything except for the boy she’ll now have to leave for the summer. But Ted can’t face his latest professional failure at home or tell his family the truth so off they go. When Ted’s brother shows up at the rustic cabin with his own picture-perfect family, the Harris family faces their biggest challenge yet: actually being a family. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE meets UNCLE BUCK

Behind the Throne
Television Pilot, Development 2008

ENTOURAGE for girls...with healthy doses of SEX AND THE CITY and DEADWOOD.
A smart but idealistic girl calls in a family favor to land an assistant job at a prestigious Hollywood studio. Once in Tinseltown and faced with sexual politics, payoffs, nepotism and corruption, she quickly discovers that all that glitters is not gold. However, she also learns that there is great power...BEHIND THE THRONE.

Hollywood has been looked at by many angles - usually from the top down. BEHIND THE THRONE is the glittery, grueling, backstabbing world of Tinseltown from the point of view of the Hollywood Assistant Mafia. It’s a look at the dream machine from a different perspective – that of an insignificant, replaceable yet critical cog. Assistants to studio chiefs and power players are like the servants in feudal times: invisible. Yet they wield a power all their own because they are the gate keepers.

Through the assistants, the show will give a fly-on-the-wall view of the movie business including the behavior of the bosses from amazing to appalling. For an audience, this is a more accessible way into the Hollywood dream. Everyone has had a shitty job. Everyone has been trampled on by a boss. Everyone can watch and imagine themselves as these assistants. These characters are relatable people who get pushed and tempted in ways we hope most people aren’t.