Horror comedy Deadly Retreat, the first full-length feature to be released by Artigo Indie, began filming yesterday, February 2nd, in Idyllwild, CA; and we have the early details along with a look at the film's teaser artwork.
Jon Artigo wrote and directs Deadly Retreat through his production company, Artigo Indie, along with his wife, Danielle Artigo (pictured), who will be producing as well as starring in the picture. Danielle's co-stars include genre vet Jennifer Blanc-Biehn and Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls), who also recently worked together in Lifetime's "The Wrong Woman."
Matt Kohler and Barry Alexander have joined the producing team as producer and co-producer, respectively.
Deadly Retreat marks Ms. Artigo's third feature producing credit in the last six months, having recently come on to produce for Blanc/Biehn Productions She Rises, starring Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Daisy McCrackin, and Angus McFadyen of AMC's new series "Turn." That project is currently in post-production.
Jon Artigo wrote and directs Deadly Retreat through his production company, Artigo Indie, along with his wife, Danielle Artigo (pictured), who will be producing as well as starring in the picture. Danielle's co-stars include genre vet Jennifer Blanc-Biehn and Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls), who also recently worked together in Lifetime's "The Wrong Woman."
Matt Kohler and Barry Alexander have joined the producing team as producer and co-producer, respectively.
Deadly Retreat marks Ms. Artigo's third feature producing credit in the last six months, having recently come on to produce for Blanc/Biehn Productions She Rises, starring Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc-Biehn, Daisy McCrackin, and Angus McFadyen of AMC's new series "Turn." That project is currently in post-production.
- 03/02/2014
- par Debi Moore
- DreadCentral.com
Sucker Free City
Screened Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in Sucker Free City. Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films In Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that Sucker Free City receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious V-Dub gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In Sucker Free City, no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
SUCKER FREE CITY
Showtime
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Credits:
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Alex Tse
Producer: Preston Holmes
Executive producers: Spike Lee, Sam Kitt
Director of photography: Cesar R. Charlone
Production designer: Kitty Douris-Bates
Music: Terence Blanchard
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Cast:
Nick Wade: Ben Crowley
Lincoln Ma: Ken Leung
K-Luv: Anthony Mackie
Sleepy: Darris Love
Laura Wade: Samantha Wade
Angela: T.V. Carpio
Leon: Malieek Straughter
Anderson Wade: John Savage
Cleo Wade: Kathy Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 116 minutes...
TORONTO -- Spike Lee gets uncomfortably close to the grass roots of gang culture in America in Sucker Free City. Focusing on a diverse group of mostly young characters in three San Francisco districts, Lee, working from a rock-solid script from Alex Tse, portrays a volatile subculture that's easy to get sucked into but damn near impossible to quit.
Reverting from recent form, where Lee used overstatement and bombast to make his points, the subtle though tough-minded approach to an unnerving subject here makes this one of the best films In Lee's career. He shot the film for Showtime, but here's hoping that Sucker Free City receives more festival exposure and theatrical playdates.
The white Wade family, gentrified out of a once affordable home in the now trendy Mission District, must move to the neglected, mostly black community of Hunters Point. There they suffer daily confrontations with the vicious V-Dub gang, especially the taunts of hotheaded Leon (Malieek Straughter).
Nick Wade (Ben Crowley), 19, is anxious to move up in the corporate world but must please execs by arranging drug deals and supplement his meager salary with credit card fraud.
K-Luv (Anthony Mackie), a gangbanger with a more stable personality, tries to get Leon off the Wade family's back. He sees Nick, a computer-savvy guy, as someone who can help him in getting into the business of bootleg CDs.
Meanwhile, trouble is brewing between the black gang and the Grant Street Boys, a Chinatown gang, over control of this pirated music. Lincoln Ma (Ken Leung), who collects protection money for a triad crime boss, is playing a double game of jeopardy: He skims money off the top of his collections even as he conducts a clandestine affair with the boss' beloved daughter (T.V. Carpio).
The plot threads allow us to crisscross town to survey the current state of street gang culture in San Francisco. While judging no one, Lee and Tse paint a grim portrait of a world that refuses to change, as it pulls each new generation into a tragic vortex of crime and destroyed lives. They make no bones about the allure of this dangerous milieu or why kids look up to gangsters glorified by rap music and "respected" by people on the street.
Mackie's K-Luv is the closest thing to the film's conscience. A criminal and killer, he nevertheless tries to steer kids toward education and looks for low-risk crime. Crowley's Nick and Leung's Lincoln Ma both are searching desperately to improve their social condition but know no means other than crime.
Cinematographer Cesar R. Charlone shifts color schemes to fit the mood and style of the film's different worlds. Colors often are supersaturated, especially in Chinatown
other times color drains away, bathing, for example, high-rise offices in blue, gray and white.
Barry Alexander Brown's editing is crisp, as is Lee's direction within each scene. Some may wish that Lee had subtitled the V-Dub street lingo just as he does the Cantonese, but the point is always clear: In Sucker Free City, no one knows it, but everyone is a sucker.
SUCKER FREE CITY
Showtime
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Credits:
Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Alex Tse
Producer: Preston Holmes
Executive producers: Spike Lee, Sam Kitt
Director of photography: Cesar R. Charlone
Production designer: Kitty Douris-Bates
Music: Terence Blanchard
Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Cast:
Nick Wade: Ben Crowley
Lincoln Ma: Ken Leung
K-Luv: Anthony Mackie
Sleepy: Darris Love
Laura Wade: Samantha Wade
Angela: T.V. Carpio
Leon: Malieek Straughter
Anderson Wade: John Savage
Cleo Wade: Kathy Baker
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 116 minutes...
- 14/09/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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