Movies
Slamdance ’10: First Stills from ‘YellowBrickRoad’
First time filmmakers Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton are ecstatic that their film YellowBrickRoad has been selected for the narrative competition at the prestigious Slamdance Film Festival. Now in its 16th year of championing the best emerging filmmaking talent, Slamdance will be held January 21-28, 2010 in Park City, Utah. Check out some new stills and the trailer below.
Many previous films that have played the festival have gone on to worldwide distribution including this year’s surprise hit, Paranormal Activity. Holland and Mitton would like to see YELLOWBRICKROAD catapult to similar success. “There were so many challenges we faced trying to make the film we wanted to make, that getting the call from Slamdance was like a dream come true. It was a very exhilarating and rewarding feeling,” said Mitton.
YELLOWBRICKROAD tells the story of an expedition that embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of the entire population of Friar, New Hampshire, who, in the fall of 1940, walked together up a winding mountain trail and into the wilderness, never to be seen alive again. The only clue left behind was a single word etched into stone near the forest’s edge: YELLOWBRICKROAD. In 2009, the coordinates to the trail were declassified and a team of researchers sets out to find out the truth behind the town’s disappearance. The film stars Cassidy Freeman (Smallville, CSI), Anessa Ramsey (The Signal), Laura Heisler (Numb3rs), Michael Laurino (Past Life), Clark Freeman (Simulacrum), Alex Draper (Joshua), and Lee Wilkof (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead).
The film was the first ever to shoot in the remote forests of northern New Hampshire. The cast and crew had to overcome difficult terrain, sparse electricity and no cell phone reception “Andy and Jesse went to school at Middlebury College in Vermont and they knew these parts of New England really well. They wrote the script with that area in mind, so we had to use it. Basically, we produced a digital movie in an analog terrain,” laughed Producer Eric Hungerford. Despite the difficulties, the filmmakers are very pleased with the end result of using the remote area. “It really adds authenticity to the desolation and isolation that is prevalent in the film,” said Hungerford.
This year’s narrative competition includes 10 films, mixes of comedy, drama and sci fi. “We were inspired by the slow burn horror and suspense films of the 70`s, and really sought to capture a realistic, character driven story while delivering an intense visceral experience,” said Holland. “Slamdance is a great venue for this film and we hope film loving audiences will respond to it the way we do,” said Hungerford. To view the film’s official trailer, please visit the website http://www.yellowbrickroadthemovie.com. The film also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account @yellwbrickroad.
Movies
Art Meets Leslie – David Howard Thornton Joins ‘Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon’
Leslie Vernon will be back in the upcoming Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon, and Variety reports that David Howard Thornton (Terrifier) has joined the cast.
David Howard Thornton is said to be featured in a “key role.” Stay tuned for more.
“David is one of the defining faces of the modern slasher era,” returning director Scott Glosserman said in a statement to Variety. “If Behind the Mask was about deconstructing the classic rules, then a sequel 20 years later has to reckon with what the genre has become.”
Glosserman adds, “Bringing David into Leslie’s world lets us put the old guard and the new blood in direct conversation, which is exactly where this movie should live.”
The upcoming slasher sequel picks up in a horror landscape that has changed dramatically since Leslie first emerged, as the old rules of the genre collide with a new wave of modern slashers, viral killers, legacy sequels and blood-soaked icons built for the internet age.
It look less than 10 minutes for the Kickstarter campaign for the recently announced Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon to smash through its goal earlier this year.
The stars of the 2006 movie Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon will reunite for the upcoming sequel, with Nathan Baesel, Angela Goethals and Robert Englund confirmed to return as Leslie Vernon, Taylor Gentry, and Doc Halloran, respectively. Scott Glosserman is also back to direct Behind the Mask II, with David J. Stieve back to write the film.
Glosserman previews, “For twenty years, people have asked if Leslie would ever come back. Fans kept this movie alive by sharing it, quoting it, introducing it to their friends, and treating it like something worth holding onto. This sequel is happening because of them.”
In the 2006 meta-slasher, aspiring slasher icon Leslie Vernon gives a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo. What’s Leslie Vernon been up to in the past 20 years? And what’s next for the character?
Paper Street Pictures, led by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, produces the sequel. Adam F. Goldberg (The Goldbergs, Shelby Oaks) will also serve as an executive producer.
Expect Behind the Mask II: The Return of Leslie Vernon in 2027.
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