Weapon of Mass Destruction Press Packet
“It Don’t Gitmo Better’n This!”
1 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CONTENTS
. CREDITS 3
. SYNOPSIS 4
. PRESS/FESTIVAL 5
. CAST 6
. DIRECTOR 12
. DIRECTOR’S VIEW 13
. DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY 15
. WRITER/PRODUCER 16
. COMPOSER 17
. EDITOR 18
. PRODUCTION INFORMATION 19
. SCREENSHOTS 20
2 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CREDITS
Director/Producer Richard Halpern
Executive Producer Jeffrey Magnussen
Writer/Producer Ian Truitner Writer Mike Le
Co-Producers Zubi Mohammed Kays Al-Atrakchi
Director of Photography Kevin Burke
Editor Julien Roussel
Composer Roman Kovalik
Captain Hank Garrison Tom Kiesche
The President John Posey
Sergeant Downey Weetus Cren
Melody Stone Leila Birch
Private Riggs John Brickner
Alexandra Tartakoff Kate Mines
3 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] SYNOPSIS
GENRE
Action / Thriller / War
TAGLINE
“It Don’t Gitmo Better’n This!”
SHORT SYNOPSIS
2007. The Iraq War has turned from “Mission Accomplished” into a hellhole with an indeterminate outcome. There are no WMDs. No links to Al Qaeda. No imminent threat as promised by the administration. In an alternate reality, a group of angry and disgruntled U.S. soldiers set out on a suicide mission to uncover the truth. Doing the unthinkable, they kidnap the Commander in Chief and interrogate him using the same techniques they were trained to inflict upon the people whose country they invaded.
4 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] PRESS/FESTIVAL
MARCHÉ DU FILM AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Premiered 5/21/2013, 81 minutes Director: Richard Halpern Cast: Tom Kiesche, John Posey, Weetus Cren, Leila Birch, John Brickner, Kate Mines
2007. In an alternate reality, a group of angry and disgruntled U.S. soldiers in Iraq set out on a suicide mission to uncover the truth about why they were sent to Iraq.
5 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CAST
Tom Kiesche as Captain Hank Garrison
Tom Kiesche didn’t follow his pre-med college path, stay in New Jersey or sell pharmaceuticals for a Fortune 500 company for very long. Since his 25 th birthday, the day he gave notice to his last “day job,” he has been highly prolific, continually working as an actor in all mediums: film, stage, sketch and improv comedy, internet, cabaret, commercials and television.
Some of Tom’s favorite roles include four episodes as Clovis on Breaking Bad, Sheriff Scutter on Bones, and Logan in the film Alien Raiders. In addition to his successes as an actor , he is also an accomplished vocalist, an award-winning screenwriter and a published novelist.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Tax Break 2009 – Bricks and Ashes 2013 – W.M.D. 2008 – Alien Raiders 2012 – School and Board 2007 – Criminal Minds 2011 – Born to Race 2006 – NCIS 2010 – Breaking Bad 2005 – Bones
6 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CAST
John Posey as The President
Actor/writer John Posey (POTUS) is a thirty year veteran of television, film and stage, with credits ranging from Seinfeld to From the Earth to the Moon to 24 to Criminal Minds and many in between. His screenplay Legendary was produced in 2010, starring Patricia Clarkson. His bio pic of Gorgeous George, the 20 th century iconic professional wrestler, is currently in development.
His solo theatrical production Father, Son & Holy Coach toured the country for several years. Plans are in the works to restage it as a two-man production, alongside his son Tyler Posey, star of the hit TV series Teen Wolf.
John says, “W.M.D. was a most entertaining ‘seat of the pants’ shoot. Playing POTUS was some of the most fun I’ve had on set.”
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Teleios 2008 – Boston Legal 2013 – W.M.D. 2006 – 24 2013 – Bones 2006 – ER 2011 – Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 2001 – Crossing Jordan 2010 – Legendary 1998 – From the Earth to the Moon
7 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CAST
Weetus Cren as Sergeant Downey
After intense classical training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) in London, Weetus moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. His first role was in Dies Irae, a short film that screened at several festivals, including Stony Brook Film Festival and Milan International Film Festival. He was then cast as a lead in Cutting Room (a.k.a. Wide Scream) along with Jon Polito (Miller’s Crossing, Gangster Squad ) and E.G. Daily (Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Happy Feet 1 & 2).
Since 2013, Weetus has starred in several projects, including: dark comedy short Coffee and Sugar, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival; TV pilot Sunny Side Up!; and sci-fi thriller Teleios alongside Sunny Mabrey (Snakes on a Plane, Once Upon a Time) and Michael Nouri (Flash Dance, Damages).
Weetus continues to hone his craft by training at the Groundlings and Second City. In his spare time, he studies foreign languages.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2015 – Sunny Side Up! 2013 – Coffee and Sugar 2014 – Teleios 2006 – Cutting Room 2013 – W.M.D. 2005 – Dies Irae 2013 – GMOs Make Cats Explode 2003 – Days That Shook the World
8 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CAST
Leila Birch as Melody Stone
Leila Birch trained at The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, studied Shakespeare at R.A.D.A. (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and attended the Stanislavski Summer Program at Yale University when she was only 15.
Leila has worked extensively in film, television, radio and theatre in the U.S., Australia and the UK for companies such as DreamWorks, NBC/Universal, Sony, E! Entertainment, BBC Television, Warner Brothers, EA Games, The Style Network, Carlton, Nickelodeon and many more. For three years Leila played the series regular Teresa di Marco in the UK’s BAFTA award-winning BBC drama EastEnders, with ratings as high as 28 million viewers.
This year Leila was thrilled to be cast as The WABAC in Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Chicanery 2008 – Devlin Made Me Do It 2014 – Mr. Peabody & Sherman 2008 – No Talent Required 2013 – W.M.D. 2002 – The Bill 2010 – Crazy/Sexy/Awkward 2000 – EastEnders 2009 – Running in Heels 1998 – More Than Dreams
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John Brickner as Private Riggs
Born and raised in Ohio, John Brickner began his professional acting career performing in the theatre before moving to Los Angeles in 2006. His credits include many starring and supporting roles in theatre shows, television and films, including roles alongside Vincent Pastore, Nick Turturro and Ariana Grande.
He also produces and directs films with his production company, A Day Before Productions, and performs with his rock band Strathmore.
For the role of Riggs in W.M.D., John drew traits from his high school friend, Wes, who was tragically killed serving in Iraq in 2004.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Territory 2009 – Addicts 2013 – W.M.D. 2008 – The Remainder 2012 – How to Grow Your Own 2008 – The Hollow 2010 – Book of Alice 2008 – The Pardoner’s Tale 2009 – Footprints 2007 – American Night
10 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] CAST
Kate Mines as Alexandra Tartakoff
Kate Mines graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and sped down to Los Angeles to begin her career. Her first film role was opposite Jeremy Renner in the Academy Awa rd winning film, The Hurt Locker. On the small screen Kate has appeared as Nurse Gloria for the past eight seasons on ABC’s hit series Grey’s Anatomy.
Kate is a creator and star of the soon-to- be released Hulu series entitled Dropping the Soap, starring Jane Lynch and produced by Lisa Kudrow. This hilarious new series is an irreverent look behind the scenes of “Colliding Lives,” a long-running soap opera that’s circling the drain.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2014 – Grey’s Anatomy 2008 – Suburban Legends 2013 – W.M.D. 2008 – The Hurt Locker 2011 – Prairie Sonata 2008 – Tween 2010 – The Mentalist 2006 – In Justice 2010 – Paranormal, Burbank 2004 – The Next Movie
11 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] DIRECTOR Richard Halpern
With 20 years of film, television and dot -com experience, award-winning producer/director/writer Richard Halpern has worked in many facets of the entertainment industry.
In addition to producing and directing W.M.D., Richard also wrote and produced Under the Bed for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions and Radar Pi ctures (Riddick, Spring Breakers); produced the feature film All Shook Up starring Sarah Chalke of TV’s Scrubs; executive produced the television series The Strand starring Katherine Helmond (Soap, Brazil); co-produced the feature film The Objective directed by Daniel Myrick (The Blair Witch Project ); produced and directed the feature film ZZYZX starring Kenny Johnson (The Shield); and produced Bigfoot County for Lionsgate Entertainment.
Richard conceived and chaired Orlando’s first International Film Festival. With a gala opening night party at the Disney/MGM Studios theme park, the festival ran for 10 days on six screens with over 100 films in exhibition and a half dozen name talent in attendance.
Richard was president and CEO of PMF Productions in Los Angeles, a dot -com wholesale gift business with revenues of over two million dollars, highlighted by a mass-selling compact disc that has sold over 300,000 copies to date. Richard’s company and movies have been publicized in over 500 media outlets including The Tonight Show, The View, L.A. Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, The Howard Stern Show, The Donny and Marie Show, USA Today, Maxim, Reader’s Digest and Money Magazine.
12 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] DIRECTOR’S VIEW
THE FILM
W.M.D. was inspired by the anger, frustration and lies the world and I witnessed by the George W. Bush administration. More specifically, it was inspired by a photograph I saw on the internet of W at a Thanksgiving celebration in Iraq —a surprise visit to the soldiers to inspire them to continue to fight a useless war.
In the photo, W is holding up a turkey, with soldiers surrounding him, in addition to sharp, metal serving utensils in view. I imagined, “What if a few of these soldiers — soldiers disgruntled by this war of lies —kidnapped the President when his guard was down, then interrogated him on national television, demanding answers about the useless death and destruction this war was creating?”
With this photo, and Executive Producer Jeffrey Magnussen’s greenlight, W.M.D. was brought to life.
THE TEXT
The screenplay was created in a fashion to communicate, in a darkly comedic way, the hypocrisy of the Iraq War, and the media’s overinflated, bombastic, lie -filled and disturbing coverage of the event. The script balances high drama, reality and satire, while showing the frustration of the war and political game being played with the civil rights (and deaths) of human beings.
STYLE & CINEMATOGRAPHY
I am a big fan of the cinéma vérité /Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking, greatly influenced by the movie The Celebration, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, in addition to the films of Lars von Trier. When I saw The Celebration at a film festival in Ireland, I was captivated by its reality -like feel and compelling storyline set in a singular location.
When putting together the vibe for W.M.D., I wanted to create this feeling of an event that is happening live, hence the strong use of handheld, POV cameras, news footage, etc. The trick was to sustain a story for 80 minutes in one location. Via strong performances and writing that created powerful b eats to motivate new actions in the story, I felt the cast and crew were able to achieve this.
CHARACTERS & ACTING
The characters of W.M.D. were created by myself and writers Mike Le and Ian Truitner . Their characteristics were a mixture of stories, letters, video blogs and emails sent by frustrated and angered soldiers who participated in the Iraq W ar.
Though the acts portrayed in W.M.D. are vicious, these acts are more a metaphor for the senseless death and destruction created by the George W. Bush regime from 2000 to 2008.
13 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] The actors were given the freedom often used in cinéma vérité —that is, to loosely work from the script, yet incorporate their own dialogue that they felt would work best for the characters. In addition to creating their own dialogue, I allowed them to also fall into their own space, blocking-wise, as I believed they would have a better feel of where to move.
14 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Kevin Burke
Kevin Burke is a twice Emmy - nominated cinematographer, as well as a writer and producer. He’s been a part of the best of children’s television programming as a producer and cinematographer of three home videos for Sesame Workshop (including All Star Alphabet starring Stephen Colbert and Nicole Sullivan); as a cinematographer for Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, It’s a Big, Big World, The Electric Company and Disney’s The Book of Pooh; and as a writer for the Emmy-winning Seemore’s Playhouse.
In 1998, Kevin was recommended for an ambitious update of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. The series, The Book of Pooh, was being developed as an effects -laden puppet show with animated, real -time 3D virtual sets combined with live action puppet characters. Kevin received his first Emmy nomin ation for his work on The Book of Pooh.
He began what would be a six year collaboration with Adam Matalon on Matalon’s film, Seasons in the Valley, a documentary that turned out to be the progenitor of their production company, Chatsby Films. The film won “Best Feature Documentary” at the Queens International Film Festival.
Kevin is currently in production on a documentary about Billie Jean Mcloughlin , a tenacious 49-year-old grandmother, EMT and National Strongwoman competitor.
15 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] WRITER/PRODUCER Ian Truitner
Ian has written, directed or produced over a dozen films, and is a longtime collaborator with Thousand Mile Media and Executive Producer Jeffrey Magnussen. Ian’s previous productions with Thousand Mile Media include feature film Cutting Room (a.k.a. Wide Scream), which won two awards at the Milan International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Picture; Coffee and Sugar, a short film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013; and Teleios, a sci-fi thriller feature starring Sunny Mabrey (Snakes on a Plane, Once Upon a Time) and Michael Nouri (Flash Dance, Damages). Teleios is currently in post production.
Prior to focusing on independent film, Ian worked at Warner Bros. Pictures in creative development, at Walt Disney’s Feature Animation division, directed an award-winning commercial campaign for Viacom’s Spike TV and a Telly Award winning anti -bullying campaign for the American Taekwondo Association.
Ian also wrote episodes for innovative hybrid scripted/reality series Critical Condition for GRB Entertainment. The success of the experiment launched the series Untold Stories of the ER on TLC and Discovery, for which Ian also penned a dozen episodes in the first season.
Ian holds an MBA from Penn State University, a BA (cum laude) from the University of Minnesota, and a graduate certificate in screenwriting from the American Film Institute. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and BMI.
16 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] COMPOSER Roman Kovalik
Roman Kovalik began his film music studies in Boston at Berklee College of Music where he earned a BA in Film Scoring (Suma Cum Laude), as well as a Certificate of Excellence in Composition. Born in Switzerland to Czech parents, he has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2006.
In his career, Roman has worked on multiple successful movies such as the Oscar winning feature film Rendition. His latest musical contribution was for the feature length documentary Passage of Time, which became the Official Selection of sever al film festivals and won an Award of Merit at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival.
Roman also composed and produced the score to the motion picture W.M.D., and scored Aaron Mento’s critically acclaimed film Standards of Living, the first movie ever shot on an iPad 2.
17 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] EDITOR Julien Roussel
Julien Roussel moved to Los Angeles from Switzerland over a decade ago to develop quality and meaningful film and television content. He is the owner of White Swan Films—a Hollywood-based production and post-production company—and serves the industry as a producer, director and editor.
Julien is the writer/director of the award - winning film Aimee Price, and recently directed the TV comedy pilot, Sunny Side Up!. He second unit directed W.M.D. (Thousand Mile Media) and The Lost Tribe (AfterDark/Lionsgate). He also co-penned Reflection, a psychological thriller in development, and The Quality of Mercy, a 16th century drama.
In the edit bay, Julien demonstrates a strong command of different editorial styles encompassing film, documentary, commercials, trailers, sizzles and web series. His most recent film credits include the independent feature W.M.D. and the documentary Without a Net featuring Alfred Molina.
Julien is the recipient of an MFA degree in Film and Television Directing from the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. Before moving to California, Julien obtained a “Licence Es Lettres” degree with a major in French Literature and a minor in Film History and Aesthetics from the University of Lausanne in Switzerla nd.
18 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Produced by Thousand Mile Media
5565 Auckland Avenue North Hollywood, CA 91601 ph: 818.655.0522 email: [email protected]
Distributed by Indican Pictures
1041 North Formosa Avenue Formosa Building, Suite 221A W est Hollywood, CA 90046 ph: 323.850.2667 email: [email protected]
19 | P a g e THOUSAND MILE MEDIA [email protected] SCREEN SHOTS
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