Archive for the ‘Morcan films’ Category

SILENT FEAR feature film to be helmed by Aussie director Antony J. Bowman

Posted: July 19, 2014 in Morcan films
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Our British thriller movie SILENT FEAR, to be shot in London in 2015, features this week in IF Magazine, the Down Under film industry chronicle. It highlights the recent attachment of Australian director Antony J. Bowman to helm the production.

Antony J. Bowman's primary photo

Director Antony J. Bowman

The article, by IF Magazine columnist Don Groves, follows (unabridged):

 

Aussie director attached to London-set thriller

[Fri 18/07/2014 4:32 PM]

By Don Groves

Antony J. Bowman is attached to direct Silent Fear, a London-set thriller which will star Kevin Sorbo.

It’s the first feature from New Zealand producers Ronel Schodt, managing director of Shotz Productions, and Brent Macpherson of Stretch Productions, through their Stretch Motion Pictures.

In an unusual twist, the female protagonist is fluent in sign language, and Macpherson is a Deaf director.

The plot revolves around Valerie Crowther (yet to be cast), a Scotland Yard detective whose mother was Deaf. Valerie is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at London’s Wandsworth University, a learning institution for the Deaf.

Sorbo will play Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Bennett, who is her ex-husband, meaning they have a difficult working relationship. Valerie’s arrival at Wandsworth University coincides with the death of a student from a deadly flu virus as the government closes the borders to prevent the entry of the virus which has caused tens of thousands of deaths elsewhere.

The screenplay is by Kiwi-born, Sydney-based writer/actor James Morcan and his father Lance Morcan. James Morcan suggested the producers hire Bowman, who directed Paperback Hero and now works in the US and UK.

His most recent feature was Almost Broadway, a drama about a group of struggling actors in New York who capitalise on their friend’s unexpected possession of an incriminating sex tape, which starred Cameron Daddo, Ella Bowman, Bernard Curry, Taryn Manning, Dov Davidoff and Currie Graham.

“Brent and I have been working together now for over a year producing promotional and commercials for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities,” said Schodt, who has two short films, Dog on Duty and Pigeons, screening at the New Zealand Festival.

“I believe that with the insight of having a Deaf director working with Ant Bowman in creating our claustrophobic world when the University for the Deaf is cut off from the rest of the world through the killer virus, we will have a unique film.

“I read up about Ant, had a couple of Skype calls and really made a connection. Brent went over to LA to meet him and also connected, hence his attachment.”

Script editor Tanya Wheeler is giving the screenplay a polish, and the producers hope to put the finance package together in the next six months.

“We would like to be filming end of 2015 in London. However there is always a possibility to shoot the film in New Zealand, now that we have our own attractive tax incentives,” she says.

“Once our script is finalised then we are 100% in search of Valerie, which will have to be an experienced lead actress to fill Valerie’s shoes, as well as learning sign language.”

Sorbo has worked steadily since his breakthrough in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. One of his recent films, low-budget, faith-based drama God’s Not Dead, has grossed more than $60 million in the US.

 

The SILENT FEAR screenplay was inspired by the murders of two deaf students at America’s prestigious Gallaudet University for the Deaf, in Washington. A report on the original crimes is detailed in our earlier blog at: https://morcanbooksandfilms.com/2013/08/27/silent-fear-feature-film-inspired-by-murders-at-gallaudet-university-for-the-deaf/

Gallaudet University (above). Gallaudet students sign in class (below).

And here’s our teaser trailer for SILENT FEAR: http://youtu.be/Ll9O9dedd44

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The first ever Indian-Australian cross-cultural feature film

Posted: January 26, 2014 in Morcan Books & Films, Morcan films
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On this auspicious day, which is both Australia Day and Indian Republic Day, my production team and I have chosen to launch the official theatrical trailer for our Australian/Indian cross-cultural feature film MY CORNERSTONE. This trailer is now showing in cinemas Australia-wide in conjunction with the release of Salman Khan’s Bollywood feature JAI HO.

MY CORNERSTONE will screen in cinemas in all major Australian cities from April 25 onwards. Plus it will screen in India later this year and will also be dubbed/translated into the following Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada & Konkani.

And here is Trailer B which highlights a different perspective of the film’s story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISSVc5UVwjA

MY CORNERSTONE was filmed in Sydney, Australia and Mumbai, India with an Australian and Indian cast and crew. It is the first Indian-Aussie cross-cultural feature film in cinema history.

Thanks to all for your for your valuable support and encouragement while making this movie.

James Morcan

MY CORNERSTONE starring Zenia Starr, James Morcan and Romin Khan. Directed by Stanley Joseph.

CREDITS:
Director: Stanley Joseph
Writers: James Morcan (screenplay), Stanley Joseph (story)
Stars: Zenia Starr, Romin Khan, James Morcan

IMDb listing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527256/

Logline: A young Indian nurse moves to Sydney where she’s placed in the household of a wealthy Indian-Australian family and given the task of caring for an elderly lady.

Runtime: 119 mins

It’s ROCKY vs RAGING BULL in GRUDGE MATCH – out soon!

Posted: September 17, 2013 in Morcan films
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De Niro (left) and Stallone put the gloves back on in ‘Grudge Match.’
Warner Bros’ GRUDGE MATCH, starring Stallone and De Niro as a pair of aging boxing rivals coaxed out of retirement, looks like a real hoot if the trailer’s anything to go by.
Also starring Kevin Hart, Kim Basinger and Alan Arkin, the Peter Segal helmed GRUDGE MATCH will hit theatres on December 25 – a timely Christmas present for all those ROCKY fans.
This comedy drama’s storyline revolves around retired boxers Billy “The Kid” McDonnen (De Niro) and Henry “Razor” Sharp (Stallone), lifelong bitter rivals who are coaxed out of retirement and into the ring for one final grudge match 30 years after their last title fight.
ROCKY vs RAGING BULL one industry commentator called it. Whatever…I predict it will be a hit.
The GRUDGE MATCH trailer is good for a laugh…           http://www.youtube.com/watchv=GQa2NxevFao
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‘The Catcher in the Rye’ still casts a spell – even after 62 years

Posted: August 30, 2013 in Books in general, Morcan films, The Ninth Orphan, The Orphan Trilogy
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Edward Norton, John Cusack, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Martin Sheen are among a star-studded line up of A-Listers who headline a soon-to-be-released documentary on J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.

JD Salinger reading Catcher in the Rye in 1952

J.D. Salinger in 1952

September 5, 2013 is the scheduled release date of the Weinstein Company-distributed doco, which the publicists say “provides an unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger”.

Listed as one of the best novels of the 20th Century, The Catcher in the Rye was also the most censored book and the second most taught book in US public schools at one point. Its vulgarity, sexual references and alleged undermining of family values have seen it earn the dubious distinction of being one of the most frequently challenged books since the early 1990’s.

Total sales 65 million and rising.

The Catcher in the Rye has been associated with several high profile shootings including and John Hinckley Jr’s assassination attempt on Ronal Reagan and Mark David Chapman’s shooting of John Lennon. Chapman was arrested with his own worn copy of the book on his person.

The Catcher in the Rye features prominently in our conspiracy thriller series The Orphan Trilogy – most notably in book one, The Ninth Orphan. Our references to Salinger’s book are made in the context of the CIA-sanctioned MK-Ultra mind control activities, which made international headlines at the time. Google “MK-Ultra” some time… It makes for sobering reading!

This book acknowledges Catcher’s hold on people.

Meanwhile, Associated Press reports the authors of a new J.D. Salinger biography claim they have cracked one of publishing’s greatest mysteries: what the author of The Catcher in the Rye was working on during the last half century of his life.

AP reports a series of posthumous Salinger releases are planned after 2015, according to David Shields and Shane Salerno, whose book Salinger will be published on 3 September… Providing by far the most detailed report of previously unreleased material, the book’s authors cite “two independent and separate sources” who they say have “documented and verified” the information.

The Salinger books would revisit Catcher protagonist Holden Caulfield and draw on Salinger’s World War II years and his immersion in eastern religion. The material also would feature new stories about the Glass family of Franny and Zooey and other Salinger works…

Over the past 50 years, there has been endless and conflicting speculation over what Salinger was doing during his self-imposed retirement. That Salinger continued to write is well documented. The author himself told the New York Times in 1974 that he wrote daily, although only for himself.

But there is no consensus on what he was writing and no physical evidence of what Salinger had reportedly stashed in a safe in his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Salinger estate…has remained silent on the subject since the author’s death in January 2010. –AP.

 

And so the intrigue over The Catcher in the Rye and its mysterious author continues!

 

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Woody Allen’s latest film “one of his best” according to this reviewer

Posted: August 28, 2013 in Morcan films
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Truthdig.com movie reviewer Richard Schickel reckons Woody Allen’s latest movie, “Blue Jasmine”, starring Cate Blanchett, is one of his best.

Woody Allen has done it again.

In a perceptive review in the Arts & Culture columns of that must-subscribe-to online site, Truthdig.com, Schickel says, “…this (film) is one of his best—sober, sometimes excoriating, likely lingering in its effect…People grow and change if they’re lucky. And Allen is, among other things, lucky. Imagine—77 years old and still making movies as good as “Blue Jasmine,” when most directors his age are out of work or collecting dubious awards.”

Excerpts of Schickel’s review follow:

When we meet Jasmine French (Cate Blanchett) at the beginning of Woody Allen’s new movie, she is, with the help of booze, pills and endless monologues, in distress. She is alarmingly close to a full-scale breakdown. By the end of “Blue Jasmine,” she has, of course, gone completely around the bend.

Blanchett as Jasmine French in Blue Jasmine.

It was not always like this with her. Once, not long ago, she was rich. Now she is reduced to living humbly with her sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins) in a very tight apartment. Once, the idea of working for a living could be dismissed with the wave of a careless hand. Now she’s lucky to have a job—at which she’s terrible—as a receptionist in a dentist’s office. Once, she had a glamorous marriage (to a splendidly slippery Alec Baldwin, no less). He has become a major actor, without anyone especially noticing how good he is.

Alec Baldwin “splendidly slippery”

The men who slide in and out of Jasmine’s life are a dismal lot. You can’t imagine any former life in which she would manage more than a few words of strained politeness with them. So what we have here are the makings of a great performance, which Blanchett delivers. I’m not someone who regularly proclaims Oscar nominations this early—or ever, for that matter. But this is one of them. She is, putting it mildly, strung tight—lost, quivering, a woman of interior and exterior dialogues aimed at getting a grip on herself. Sometimes it seems as if that may actually happen. But she always falls back in disarray.

It gives nothing away to say that the movie arrives at an end that you can pretty much see coming from its first reel. We leave her muttering to herself without a hope in hell of finding her way back to something like what? Not sanity, surely, because sanity has never been an issue with her. She’s really just an everyday neurotic, the kind of person you more or less avoid, if possible. Or to whom you give the shortest possible shrift. Blanchett is up for all of this. This is a wonderfully shifty performance—full of nervous laughter, devious strategies, no small amount of desperation, and moments of slightly eerie calm. There are also violent confrontations, which startle and discomfit you.

For the full review go to: http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/woody_allens_latest_shows_hes_still_got_it_20130802/

 

Woody Allen on the set of Blue Jasmine

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SILENT FEAR feature film inspired by murders at Gallaudet University for the Deaf

Posted: August 27, 2013 in Morcan films
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Our British thriller feature film SILENT FEAR was inspired by the murders of two deaf students at America’s prestigious Gallaudet University for the Deaf, in Washington, some 13 years ago.

Gallaudet University

It was a case that gripped America from the time of the first murder, in September 2000, until an arrest was made following the second murder some five months later. Washington Metropolitan Police didn’t know if it was an ‘inside job’ and for a time nearly everyone connected to Gallaudet was under suspicion.

Signing in class at Gallaudet

A copy of a 2001 CNN report on the murder investigation follows:

Suspect arrested in Gallaudet murders

February 13, 2001

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A suspect has been arrested in connection with the murders of two students at Gallaudet University, police said Tuesday.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey said 20-year old Joseph Mesa, a freshman at the university for the deaf, was charged with two counts of felony murder for the deaths of Benjamin Varner, 19, whose body was found February 3, and Eric Plunkett, also 19, who was killed in September.

Ramsey said the motive for the murders was robbery.

“We have sufficient evidence to charge him with two counts of felony murder,” Ramsey said.

Mesa will be arraigned Wednesday in District of Columbia Superior Court.

Varner, of San Antonio, Texas, died of multiple stab wounds to his face and body. Plunkett, of Burnsville, Minnesota, was beaten to death. He suffered from cerebral palsy.

Dr. I. King Jordan, president of Gallaudet, said there is a sense of relief that the suspected killer has been caught.

“At the same time, there’s a real sense of sadness that the individual who is said to be responsible for this is from our community,” Jordan said.

Both students were killed in Cogswell Hall, which will remain closed for the remainder of the semester, university officials said. Mesa lived in the dorm next to Cogswell Hall.

Another killing occurred at Gallaudet in 1981, when a male student stabbed his boyfriend to death after a heated argument. The murderer was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Gallaudet, was founded partly by President Abraham Lincoln nearly 140 years ago.

When first heard about the murders, it inspired us to write the SILENT FEAR screenplay. We found the idea of a serial killer at large in a university for the Deaf chilling and we immediately recognized it was high concept and tailor-made for gripping cinematic viewing.

While SILENT FEAR could be set just about anywhere in the civilized world, we’ve chosen to set it in London. In the London borough of South Kensington to be exact. We believe the thriller genre suits London and this story has a very British feel to it. That said, we are confident it will appeal to audiences worldwide – both normal hearing and Deaf audiences.

Here’s the SILENT FEAR premise in brief:

Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at London’s Wandsworth University for the Deaf. Her investigation coincides with a student contracting a deadly flu virus, which results in the university being sealed off from the outside world. When more deaf students are murdered, it’s clearly the work of a serial killer. The stakes rise when Valerie becomes the killer’s next target and the deadly virus claims more lives.

Here’s our teaser trailer for SILENT FEAR: http://youtu.be/Ll9O9dedd44

New Zealand producers Brent Macpherson, of Stretch Productions, and Ronel Schodt, of Shotz Productions, aim to shoot SILENT FEAR on location in London as a likely 3D production in 2014. They welcome expressions of interest from experienced British producers interested in collaborating on this highly commercial feature film project as well as from A-List directors interested in helming it.

http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1935228/

http://stretchproductions.co.nz/

www.shotzproductions.co.nz

 

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The timing for our 3D thriller SILENT FEAR couldn’t be better if James Cameron is right

Posted: August 23, 2013 in Morcan films
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TITANIC director James Cameron waxed lyrical about the future of 3D in a recent BBC interview, stating it’s “absolutely inevitable that entertainment will all be 3D eventually”.

Cameron sees bright future for 3D

If he’s right, this bodes well for our British thriller SILENT FEAR, which is to be shot on location in London next year. It’s likely to be released in the three-dimensional format.

However, depending on who you talk to, it seems the jury’s still out on the future of 3D in movies.

In an interesting report in Indiewire.com’s The Playlist this week, columnist Kevin Jagernauth says the 3D format has been taking some blows at the box office, with North American crowds favoring regular old 2D for the majority of their viewing experience.

Here’s some excerpts (abridged) from that report:

To 3D or not to 3D, that is the question, and lately…the format has been taking some blows at the box office, with North American crowds favoring regular old 2D for the majority of their viewing experience. This summer, only 25% of total domestic ticket sales of Dreamworks’ animated film “Turbo” came from those uncomfortable glasses, with 31% of sales for “Monsters University” in 3D, and only 34% for Brad Pitt’s biggest grossing movie ever, “World War Z.”

Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, an ex-UN investigator

World War Z’s 3D sales down

But don’t tell that to James Cameron, who sees only a bright, three-dimensional future for the format…

Chatting recently with the BBC, the director made it clear that 3D is here to stay. “For me it’s absolutely inevitable that entertainment will be 3D, it’ll all be 3D eventually, because that’s how we see the world,” he said, adding: “When it’s correct and convenient for us, we pre-select for that as the premium experience.”

Avatar an Oscar star

From an industry perspective, he (Cameron) points to the fact that three out of the last four Cinematography Oscars went to 3D movies (“Avatar,” “Hugo” and “Life Of Pi”). And though he acknowledges that “bad conversion” has “polluted” the experience for man—not to mention a handful of cable networks dropping channels broadcasting in 3D recently—Cameron ultimately believes the technology, product and consumer desire for 3D will all dovetail eventually into a perfectly synchronized harmony of success.

And while Cameron’s comments might seem wildly out of touch with what audiences are clearly voting for at the box office, it should be noted that overseas 3D is still huge, with 80-90% of tickets moviegoers in Russia and China choosing to put on the glasses. And as long as that’s the case, 3D isn’t going anywhere…

…There is probably no bigger cheerleader on the planet for 3D than James Cameron, but he’s also been the loudest voice when it comes to half-hearted, unartistic use of the format…

…”I do not think Hollywood is using the 3D properly…because it is automatic. For example, ‘The Man of Steel,’ ‘Iron Man’ and all those movies should not necessarily be in 3D. If you spend 150 million on visual effects, the film is already going to be spectacular, perfect.” You would think that the same logic would apply to Cameron’s already expensive “Avatar,” but it was shot in 3D, whereas the superhero flicks were conversion jobs, and that’s where the difference lies.

“One thing is shooting in 3D and another to convert to 3D. After ‘Avatar’ changed everything, good and bad movies, everything has to be in 3D since ‘Avatar.’ The problem I see now is that instead of it being a filmmaker issue is a matter of the studios to make money and are pushing 3D to directors who are not comfortable or do not like 3D,” Cameron elaborated.

For the full article go to: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/director/james-cameron

 

Footnote: SILENT FEAR’s New Zealand producers Brent Macpherson, of Stretch Productions, and Ronel Schodt, of Shotz Productions, welcome expressions of interest from A-List directors as well as from experienced British producers interested in collaborating on this highly commercial feature film project.

http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1935228/

http://stretchproductions.co.nz/

www.shotzproductions.co.nz

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Teaser trailer for 3D feature film SILENT FEAR – shooting in London in 2014

Posted: August 20, 2013 in Morcan Books & Films, Morcan films
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Here’s our teaser trailer for SILENT FEAR: http://youtu.be/Ll9O9dedd44

When you can’t hear……death comes silently.

Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at London’s Wandsworth University for the Deaf. Her investigation coincides with a student contracting a deadly flu virus, which results in the university being sealed off from the outside world. When more deaf students are murdered, it’s clearly the work of a serial killer. The stakes rise when Valerie becomes the killer’s next target and the deadly virus claims more lives.

The video teaser above is a re-enactment of the first brutal murder.

Inspired by the murders of two deaf students at America’s Gallaudet University for the Deaf in the early 2000’s, SILENT FEAR is a chilling, claustrophobic thriller set in London. The screenplay is by Lance & James Morcan, of Morcan Motion Pictures.

New Zealand producers Brent Macpherson, of Stretch Productions, and Ronel Schodt, of Shotz Productions, are aiming to shoot SILENT FEAR on location in London as a likely 3D production in 2014.

The producers welcome expressions of interest from experienced British producers interested in collaborating on this highly commercial feature film project as well as A-List directors.

http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt1935228/

http://stretchproductions.co.nz/

www.shotzproductions.co.nz

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Free Movie starring Nick Cannon, Chloë Sevigny and Timothy Hutton

Posted: July 31, 2013 in Books in general, Morcan Books & Films, Morcan films, The Ninth Orphan, The Orphan Factory, The Orphan Trilogy, The Orphan Uprising
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The Killing Room is a feature film that is inspired by the secret history of mind control in the United States and elsewhere.

The Killing Room (2009) 

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

Starring: Nick Cannon, Chloë Sevigny and Timothy Hutton

You can watch the entire film for free on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxSzZtubb7g

Here’s the film’s logline: Four individuals sign up for a psychological research study only to discover that they are now subjects of a brutal, classified government program.

The program they refer to is MK-Ultra.

We have researched MK-Ultra and the secret history of mind control in our conspiracy thriller series The Orphan Trilogy, and this is what we uncovered:

MK-Ultra, the CIA’s far-reaching mind control program, was an umbrella project spawned from the US Government’s super-secret Project Paperclip, a sinister venture that involved bringing dozens of Nazi scientists to America immediately after World War Two. Some believe MK-Ultra’s beginnings actually go back to the horrendous psychiatric experiments the Nazis conducted during the Holocaust.

Researching declassified CIA documents, we also became aware of the often-disastrous impact MK-Ultra had had on the lives of CIA operatives and unwitting US citizens over the years.

Some of America’s highest profile assassins (including the likes of John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman and Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan) claimed they were CIA-programmed killers hypnotized by MK-Ultra…The media portrayed them as crazed lone gunmen, so naturally the public paid little attention to their claims.

Sirhan Sirhan and David Chapman…Manchurian Candidates?

We believe it’s possible some of these men were mind-controlled soldiers, or Manchurian Candidates, carrying out assassination orders their conscious minds were not even aware of.

For more about the murky and disturbing history behind MK-Ultra go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fml1Z5saLH0

Here’s a list of novels that have mind control as a major theme in their plots – courtesy of Goodreads.com –

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/11984.Mind_Control_Fiction#13250061

Our conspiracy thriller series The Orphan Trilogy (The Ninth Orphan / The Orphan Factory / The Orphan Uprising) features prominently on this list.

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A serial killer targets the Deaf in upcoming 3D feature film SILENT FEAR – inspired by a true story

Posted: June 17, 2013 in Morcan Books & Films, Morcan films
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Our upcoming 3D feature film SILENT FEAR is underway!

The contracts have been signed off to produce a stunning multi-million dollar 3D feature film, SILENT FEAR, a claustrophobic British thriller which is in development now.

Pictured celebrating the formalising of contracts are (above from left) the Producers Brent Macpherson, of Stretch Motion Pictures, and Ronel Schodt, of Shotz Film & Video Productions, screenwriter Lance Morcan, and Sam Manuatu, New Zealand Sign Language interpreter for the meeting. Absent was Sydney-based screenwriter James Morcan.

Brent and Ronel are currently working feverishly behind the scenes and will announce major developments accordingly. An official New Zealand-UK co-production is likely for this production.

Inspired by true events, SILENT FEAR has the makings of a chilling murder-mystery thriller.

Here’s our logline for the film:

Detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at London’s Wandsworth University, an international institution for the deaf. Her investigation coincides with a student contracting a deadly flu virus, which results in the university being sealed off from the outside world. When more deaf students are murdered, it’s clearly the work of a serial killer. The stakes rise when Valerie becomes the killer’s next target and the deadly virus claims more lives.

Stretch Motion Pictures will launch a website with additional information relating to SILENT FEAR in due course – at: www.stretchproductions.co.nz

Watch this space for more updates about this exciting feature film production! -Lance & James

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