Mongrel Media Presents Language: English Distribution Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR 1028 Queen Street West Tel: 416-488-4436 Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1H6 Fax: 416-488-8438 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com High res stills may be downloaded from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/preggoland LOGLINE A 35 year-old woman pretends to be pregnant to fit in with her friends. SHORT SYNOPSIS When 35-year-old Ruth ruins a baby shower with her juvenile antics, her old high school cronies- who are all mothers now-promptly de-friend her. But when she is later mistakenly thought to be ‘with child’ she is inexplicably welcomed back into the group. Although she initially tries to come clean, the many perks of pregnancy are far too seductive to ignore. Preggoland is a comedy about our societal obsession with babies and the lengths we’ll go to be part of a club. SYNOPSIS At 35, Ruth (Sonja Bennett) hasn’t changed much since high school. She’s still partying in parking lots, working as a cashier in a supermarket, and living in her father’s basement. When Ruth gets drunk at a friend’s baby shower and ruins it with her juvenile antics, her old high school cronies – who are now all married with children – suggest she might want to find some friends her own mental age. Ruth is devastated. Just when Ruth hits rock bottom, she runs into her friends who mistakenly think she’s pregnant. Ruth is inexplicably welcomed back into the group - she is one of them now. Not only that but people give up their seat on the bus for her, she gets unlimited breaks at work, and her grandchild- obsessed father (James Caan) approves of her for the first time in her life. Although Ruth has every intention of coming clean… she soon finds herself addicted to the smack called attention. Her lies begin to balloon until there are twins in her belly. When Ruth’s dad has a heart attack and he tells her that the twins are the only thing keeping him alive, Ruth decides to continue with the fake pregnancy until his health improves. Her competitive (and secretively infertile) sister becomes jealous and makes it her life’s mission to prove that Ruth’s still the loser she’s always been. Things get even more complicated when Ruth falls in love with a man who wants nothing more than to raise her unborn children as his own. With the help of Pedro (Danny Trejo), the hapless Mexican janitor at her store, Ruth must tackle ultrasounds, Lamaze classes, and dating with a secret the size of a basketball stuffed under her shirt. Can she get out of this without losing her job, friends, respect of her family, and the love of her life? Written by Sonja Bennett and directed by Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky, Good Neighbours), Preggoland is a comedy that looks at the lengths we will go, to be part of the club. ABOUT THE CAST SONJA BENNET – “Ruth” Sonja s first film role was in the Canadian feature film Punch. For her performance she was awarded Best Actress by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and received a special Artistic Merit Award from Women in Film and Video. Following Punch, Sonja was cast in lead roles on such shows as Cold Squad and Godiva s (both of which earned her Leo and Gemini nominations), as well as in such films as Control Alt Delete, in which she starred opposite Tyler Labine; Elegy, in which she appeared opposite Dennis Hopper and Ben Kingsley; Where The Truth Lies, directed by Atom Egoyan; and Fido in which she acted opposite Billy Connolly and Tim Blake Nelson. She also had starring roles in Fathers and Sons; Catch and Release (in which she appeared opposite Jennifer Garner, Timothy Olyphant, and Kevin Smith); Donovan s Echo (opposite Danny Glover and Bruce Greenwood), Cole (for which she was nominated for a Genie Award, the Canadian Academy Award); and Young People Fucking, for which she won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Supporting Actress. Most recently, Sonja was seen in the feature films, Random Acts of Romance directed by Katrin Bowen, and In No Particular Order directed by Terry Miles. In 2010, Sonja decided to apply what she learned from ten years making films in front of the camera to something more behind the scenes, so she took up screenwriting. Her first screenplay, Christmas is for Cats, was awarded an honorable mention in the Praxis feature film screenplay competition. Preggoland is her second screenplay. JAMES CAAN – “Walter” An American screen icon, James Caan made his American film debut starring Olivia De Havilland, in Lady in a Cage, for Paramount Pictures. He followed this with a starring role in Howard Hawks’ Red Line 7000 and El Dorado, alongside John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, before Francis Ford Coppola tapped him to star in The Rain People. Three years later, Coppola cast him again, this time as the short-tempered Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role in The Godfather: Part II and also starred in Karel Reisz’ The Gambler, the musical Funny Lady opposite Barbara Streisand, and Norman Jewison’s Rollerball. He collaborated with French director Claude Lelouch on two occasions – Another Man, Another Chance and Dance of Life – and starred in Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far and Michael Mann’s highly acclaimed debut feature, Thief. After a five-year hiatus, he returned to acting in Coppola’s Garden of Stone in 1987, and went on to do a role in Dick Tracey, for his friend Warren Beatty. After Rob Reiner’s Misery, he immediately did For The Boys, with Bette Middler, and Honeymoon in Vegas for Castlerock. More recently he starred in last year's Blood Ties with Marion Cotillard and Clive Owen for Guillaume Canet. ABOUT THE CAST (Cont’d) DANNY TREJO – “Pedro” Danny Trejo’s prolific career in Hollywood began when he visited the set of Runaway Train and was offered a role as a convict. Since then, he has gone on to star in dozens of films including Desperado, Heat (opposite Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino), From Dusk to Dawn, Con Air (opposite Nicolas Cage), and Once Upon a Time in Mexico alongside Johnny Depp. An appearance in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse led to the spin-off Machete trilogy in which Danny plays an ex-federale with a gift for wielding a blade. Other iconic roles include Uncle Machete in the hugely successful Spy Kids series, Guerrero Hernandez in Universal Pictures’ Dead in Tombstone, Goldberg in the Death Race series (Death Race 2 and Death Race: Inferno), and Frank Vega in Bad Ass and its sequel Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses. Most recently, Trejo appeared with Tina Fey and Ray Liotta in Muppets Most Wanted, and starred alongside Jonathan Banks in Bullet, the story of a cop who takes the law into his own hands when his grandson is kidnapped. Some of Danny’s recent television work includes his series regular role on the FX show Saint George, recurring roles on Sons of Anarchy and King of the Hill, and appearances on NCIS: Los Angeles, Franklin and Bash, Bones, Modern Family, and Breaking Bad. PAUL CAMPBELL – “Danny” Born and raised in White Rock, BC, Paul Campbell started acting in 2002. His first big break came in 2003 when Paul was cast in a small, ambitious project for Syfy Network called Battlestar Galactica. Campbell starred in the role of Billy, personal assistant to President Roslin, played by Mary McDonnell, for two seasons. The series would ultimately become known as one of the most successful and critically acclaimed sci-fi series of all time. Moving into comedy, Billy was the lead (alongside SNL’s Taran Killam) in the 2005 comedy pilot, Nobody’s Watching created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Spin City, Undateable). The pilot was not picked up but found huge success online as the result of a viral marketing campaign. In 2008, Paul reprised his role as Billy in the reboot of Knight Rider, which ran for a single season on NBC. He followed this up with a lead in the offbeat comedy series Almost Heroes for Showcase Network. Paul In addition to his work on TV, Paul has starred in such high profile feature films as 88 Minutes (alongside Al Pacino), The Big Year (opposite Steve Martin) and Play The Game, alongside Andy Griffith. Campbell is currently starring with Dave Foley in the comedy series Spun Out for CTV Television. ABOUT THE CAST (Cont’d) LAURA HARRIS – “Shannon” Born to public school teachers in Pacific Northwest Canada, Laura Harris began acting professionally in CBC radio dramas at age five. With a taste for quirky, character driven material, Harris is known for playing 1930's starlet "Daisy Adair" in the hit Showtime series Dead Like Me, with Mandy Patinkin. Film work includes Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty with Elijah Wood, Christopher Guest’s award-winning comedy A Mighty Wind, and Chris Smith's comedic thriller Severance, with Toby Stephens. Other television work includes a SAG-nominated turn as “Marie Warner” in FOX’s runaway hit, 24, starring Keifer Sutherland. In her personal time, Laura is active in the food justice community, and studied social ecological systems design at UC Berkeley. She is currently directing her first documentary series, entitled My First Time, with Outfoxed producer Jim Gilliam.