Midnight Reckoning" Nat. Premiere Sept. 10
FOR IMMED. RELEASE Paul Moran, 818-360-1107, midnightreckoning@gmail.com
Friday the 13th of August 2010 Paul's PR International
SUPERNATURAL THRILER "MIDNIGHT RECKONING"
HAS NATIONAL PREMIERE IN LEAD ACTOR'S HOME TOWN
Apocalyptic, Road Pic Pairing ‘Girlfriends’ Star Persia White & Soap Heartthrob Bruce Michael Hall
opens first in Hall's own St. Joseph before it's gala opening in L.A.
ST. JOSEPH, MO.; This September 10th “Midnight Reckoning,” first-time writer-director Derrick Warfel’s “Twilight Zone”-like feature about a budding rock star’s horrific, desert run-in with a rogue prophet and his shadowy female sidekick, will follow the beat of a different drummer like many independent movies are doing these days…breaking all the distribution rules. "The old system doesn't work." Warfel said. "You're got to try new release strategies. Bruce plays a down-on-his-luck rock singer in the film, and in real life he sings lead in a successful country western rock band, Borderline. It made sense to open to a friendly target audience with Bruce's music fans before going wider. "Napoleon Dynamite' did that by it's initial release on college campus towns."
The triple award wining Sci-Fi/Horror film starring CW's “Girlfriends” lead Persia White as the driven disciple, Tony Longo (Hollywood Henchman, “The Cooler,” “Mulholland Dr.”) as her doomsday preacher, and Hall as a stranded musician hitching a late-night ride from the eccentric couple, will unspool at St. Joseph, Missouri's own Plaza 8 on Friday Sept. 10 before having a wider platform release Oct. 1 in Los Angeles, Dallas, Salt Lake City, and other cities during the PreHalloween scary movie release feeding frenzy at theaters nationwide.
The 86-minute mind-bender and morality tale about a lost generation also boasts Australian TV star Grant Bowler (“Ugly Betty", "Lost") as a fellow hitcher with a plot to con the soothsayer and also features “Hawaii Five-O” veteran Al Harrington (“DreamKeeper”) as a mysterious wilderness dweller. The film chronicles the hitcher’s desperate efforts to escape his impending judgment and the paranormal grip of the night or end up, as predicted, "Dead by dawn."
“We’re taking the audience on an unnerving ride to that same Rod Serling territory oft frequented by David Lynch, "Lost", "X-files", and Christopher Nolan in "Memento and "Inception,’” said Warfel, both a graduate of U.S.C film school (MFA) and Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM). "Like Nolan, I'm interested in making a thinking person's thriller, and nothing makes you think like death and the spiritual implications it brings." The movie was known during its film festival run as "The Fall of Night" after opening at the Montreal World Film Festival.
For more information and interviews, visit www.MidnightReckoning.com/Press and /blog.
Sci-Fi & Horror Awards
Dugan & Story Public Relations
May 1, 2008 Winter Star Prods., fallofnight@winterstarproductions.com (aka "Midnight Reckoning")
CANNES MARKET ENTRY ‘THE FALL OF NIGHT’
CROWNED BEST SCI-FI/HORROR AT LONDON INDIE & BARE BONES FILM FESTS
Dark Tale Pits ‘Girlfriends’ Star Persia White, Hollywood Henchman Tony Longo
Against “One Life to Live” Soap Star Bruce Michael Hall in Apocalyptic Road Pic
CANNES, France -- “The Fall of Night,” first-time feature director and USC grad Derrick Warfel’s “Twilight Zone”-like offering about a tarnished rock star’s horrific, desert run-in with a rogue prophet and his mysterious female sidekick, collected two awards in as many weeks last month when it was named Best Sci-Fi/Horror Film at the London Independent Film Festival (Apr. 14-19) and Best Sci-Fantasy/Horror Feature at the Bare Bones International Film Festival (Apr. 17-27) in Muskogee, Okla., it was announced today by Warfel’s Winter Star Prods.
Branded “a taut, edge-of-your-seat nail-biter” by Bare Bones director Oscar Ray, the
time-twisting 86-min. drama/thriller -- starring CW’s “Girlfriends” lead Persia White as the driven disciple, Tony Longo (“The Cooler”) as her doomsday preacher and Bruce Michael Hall (“One Life
to Live”) as a musician on the lam who hitches a late-night ride from the calculating couple -- will screen twice here during the Cannes Film Market (May 14-25): Mon. May 19 at Gray 4 at 11:30 a.m. and Thu. May 22 at Palais D at 3:30 p.m.
Seizing headlines in Oklahoma’s daily Tulsa World, which touted its “noted cast” and “suspenseful storyline,” “The Fall of Night” logged its U.S. premiere at Bare Bones, following its world premiere at last fall’s Montreal World Film Festival. Film next competes in the Central Florida Film Festival (Aug. 28-31).
Bare Bones-winning picture -- one of 149 overall entries made for the fest’s under-$1 mil budget requirement -- was nominated for Best Ensemble for the cast rounded out by Australian TV personality Grant Bowler, “Hawaii Five-O” veteran Al Harrington, and indie comers Sera Bastian and Burke Roberts.
Oklahoma stand also saw Warfel -- mentor of the speed filmmaking 168 Film Project in Burbank, CA -- teach his “How to Make a Short Film in a Short Time on a Short Budget” seminar (based on his upcoming book) and participate in the fest-wrapping “Indie Producers Panel of Speakers.”
The USC film school and Dallas Theological Seminary grad explained he wanted to make “Fall” a “visceral yet thinking person’s thriller, in the vein of Rod Serling’s great TV series.”
For more info, visit fallofnight.com, londonindependent.org or barebonesfilmfestivals.org.
Films by Voight & Warfel Premiere at Montreal
DUGAN & STORY PUBLIC RELATIONS: Sat. Aug. 25, 2007 ("Midnight Reckoning" aka "The Fall of Night")
MONTREAL’S PREMIERES ENLIST VOIGHT & FIRST-TIME FILMMAKER WARFEL MONTREAL -- The 31st Montreal World Film Festival kicked off its opening weekend here today with a wide-ranging slate of over 400 films running the gamut of big-budget, soon-to-bereleased fare like Jon Voight starrer “September Dawn” recounting the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre in Utah, to Winter Star Prods.’ smaller-budgeted apocalyptic thriller “The Fall of Night”
by writer-director Derrick Warfel and starring CW network’s “Girlfriends” lead Persia White.
Slowhand Releasing’s historical “September Dawn,” entered in the main World Competition section, unspools three times during the Aug. 23-Sep. 3 festival, including yesterday’s 7 p.m. screening in the Theatre Maisonneuve attended by Voight. The evening engagement capped a special afternoon WFF lifetime tribute to the Oscar-winning, four-time nominated actor -- after which the celebrant mingled with the WFF’s crop of new filmmakers, including USC grad Warfel. Warfel’s fictional film about a rock star wannabe knocking heads with a rogue prophet and his shadowy sidekick (White), meanwhile, makes its world bow today at 8:20 p.m. in the city’s Cinema Quartier Latin, and screens twice more there, on Sun. Aug. 26 at 9:00 a.m. and Mon. Aug. 27 at 10:00 p.m. It is one of 23 debut features vying for Zenith awards in the fest’s First Films section.
The two films -- both indies and enjoying Canadian and world premieres, respectively, at this year’s edition -- are a melding of WFF director Serge Losique’s and head programmer Danièle Cauchard’s oft-repeated objective of having debutant filmmakers mix, and even compete, with more established film professionals.
“We noticed that a lot of first feature films are made every year and even more now because of the new technology that allows people with a smaller budget to be able go forward with a first project,” Cauchard told the Canadian Broadcasting Company last year. “When we started we had mostly 35mm (film) prints,” she said. “We used to receive less submissions
because it was expensive.”
What matters nowadays, Losique told the CBC back then, is that more filmmakers
dedicate themselves to making good intelligent films.
For more information on “The Fall of Night” and the coming together of veterans and
new discoveries at the WFF, visit www.fallofnight.com or www.ffm-montreal.org.