Shape Films LLC Presents

Home , Chernobyl (miniseries), David James Elliott, Hope Lange, Leslie Easterbrook, Sean Murray (actor), Sid Haig

A Film by Yuri Shapochka (USA, Ukraine, 96 min, 2013)

Press:

Rich Street Productions LLC

[email protected] www.facebook.com/ClubhouseMovie

www.clubhousemovie.com CLUBHOUSE CAST

Robert Tim Abell

Patty Newman Leslie Easterbrook

Clarke Wilcox Christopher Murray

Misha Dimitri Diatchenko

Madeline Katharine McEwan

Adela Tatiana Kazak-Hall

Electrician Scott Page

Judge Tweed Ronald Dauphinee

Mayor Potts Patrick Brett Hale

Lieutenant Lamport Robert Hill

CREW

Production Designer Milton Ragsdale

Sound Mixer Scott A. Jennings

Music Sean Murray

Director of Photography David Brower

Editor Toby J. Brown

Visual Effects Supervisor Price Pethel

Co-Producers Tim Abell

Vladimir Chistyakov

Chris Meztista

David Brower

Screenplay Yuri Shapochka

Produced by Yuri Shapochka

Directed by Yuri Shapochka

2 SYNOPSIS

Clubhouse, a revenge play and morality tale, features a razor sharp, biting black comedy. With the flip of a coin as in life, a different face can suddenly appear: friend or foe; hope or despair; victim or empowered. Robert, a wheelchair-bound Iraq War vet, using his family's magnificent old Southern home for a greater good, soon discovers nefarious plots being made against his life and property.

PRODUCTION STORY

Clubhouse stars Tim Abell (Soldier of Fortune), Leslie Easterbrook (Police Academy, The Devil's Rejects), Christopher Murray (Crossing Over, Smokin' Aces, The Pelican Brief), Dimtri Diatchenko (Chernobyl Diaries).

Tim Abell joined Yuri Shapochka in producing Clubhouse. Shape Films LLC produced the film through Rich Street Productions. Other production credits include: David Brower (Lifted, The Saints of Mt. Christopher) as director of photography; Academy Award®-winner Price Pethel (Titanic, Apollo 13, True Lies) as visual effects supervisor; sound mixer Scott A. Jennings (The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto, The Help); composer Sean Murray (Call of Duty: Black Ops, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

PRODUCTION NOTES

Clubhouse deals with nefarious plots made against the life and property of a wheelchair-bound Iraq War vet living in his family’s magnificent old Southern home. Some of the plots are cooked up by the vet’s so-called friends, and one is hatched by a corrupt politician.

Shapochka filmed Clubhouse on location in only 12 shooting days with a local crew, including his regular cinematographer David Brower, and a mix of Alabama local and Hollywood actors.

The film’s successful completion is another example of how Shapochka, who grew up behind what we used to call the Iron Curtain, has flourished in the Deep South — putting down roots, producing films and, it seems, making lots of friends.

Clubhouse is inspired by events in the life of Shapochka’s close friend Bob McKenna, who — like the lead character in Clubhouse — uses a wheelchair and lives in a beautiful century-old house.

According to Shapochka, McKenna “is a very spiritual, inspirational character himself, and so from my conversations with him and episodes from his life, and people I met at his house, I had this idea. It’s a loose adaptation of some events. However, it is 100 percent fiction. I didn’t make a point to make a documentary or life story, but I took some quotes and episodes, and Bob helped us with the location.”

3 The Clubhouse script “started out as a revenge story,” Brower says. “But as Yuri gets to writing it, it becomes a commentary on the society and life in general. It couldn’t be just a simple revenge play.” Brower adds, “The funny thing about Clubhouse is that there are moments in that script that are totally unbelievable that come out of real life. Nobody would believe it, but in fact it actually happened.”

Shapochka offers high praise for Brower, who has 30 years of experience in high-end commercial work and recently photographed two indie features for other directors. “I have this absurdist view on the world, and it’s never easy to express things that way, and David supports me all the way in realizing and presenting this style,” Shapochka says, adding, “The way he does his lighting is like poetry.”

Shapochka “almost can’t help but turn anything into a dark comedy, which I love,” Brower says. “He embraces absurdity. He’s not afraid of it. It’s a way of magnifying reality so you see it for what it is.”

Veteran TV and film actor Tim Abell portrays Robert, the Iraq War vet, in Clubhouse. Abell met Shapochka on the Los Angeles set of the film Cross in 2011. It was about a year later when Shapochka sent Abell the Clubhouse script. The actor was impressed. “One thing I liked about the script is that there are scenes that come out of nowhere and are so unexpected,” he says during a phone interview.

Abell was also struck by the range of Shapochka’s vision. “It was a story of good and evil, of greed, of pride and lust, of almost every sin you could imagine,” he says. “The true nature of man is really what this is about — the goodness of one man and the other people who can’t accept what he is trying to give them.”

Abell became an actor and co-producer on the film and helped convince veteran actors Leslie Easterbrook (the Police Academy series) and Christopher Murray to take part. Murray’s brother, Sean, a composer who wrote music for a recent Call of Duty game and numerous films, created the score.

Leslie Easterbrook says she thought Clubhouse was the best script she had read in a long time. “The audience doesn’t know where you’re going in every scene,” she says by phone from her Southern California home. “Nothing is ever what it seems on the surface. The characters are complex… and it says so much about human nature.”

ABOUT THE CAST

TIM ABELL — Robert

An exciting, eclectic actor, Tim Abell is a man of his own making and when that making includes teaching ballroom dancing, horse training, writing, cooking, acting, producing and being a US Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment, you can see it is a formidable combination.

4 His break came, when April Webster recommended that Jerry Bruckheimer cast him in "Soldier of Fortune" as Benny Ray Riddle, a former Marine scout/sniper recruited by the Pentagon to work as part of a covert team. The syndicated series ran for two seasons. Then followed a series of films that made much of Tim's military experiences, including "The Base", where he starred opposite Mark Dacascos in a performance that had him compared to a young Willem Dafoe, and "The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option" which also starred Treat Williams and Bill Nunn.

Tim was to find himself starring with Dacascos again in the film adaptation of Lisa Gardner's book "The Perfect Husband". In "Instinct to Kill" Tim played psychotic killer Jim Beckett with Missy Crider as his long-suffering wife. "Murder, She Wrote: The Last Free Man" for CBS, saw a change of direction for Tim into historical costume drama, which was then followed by roles alongside James Caan and Daniel Stern in Jason Bloom's award-winning "Dead Simple", and in the much acclaimed "We Were Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson. Guest-starring roles in the television series' "CSI: Miami", "NCIS", and "JAG" brought Tim face to face with David Caruso, Mark Harmon and David James Elliott.

LESLIE EASTERBROOK — Patty Newman

Leslie Easterbrook created Callahan, the tough as nails, overzealous drill instructor in the Police Academy movies. If you missed her in the original movie, you may have seen her in one of the sequels, punching her way up the ranks, from Sergeant to Captain.

Leslie also created long-running characters Devlin Kowalsky on Ryan’s Hope (3 years,) and Rhonda Lee (3 seasons) on Laverne and Shirley. She has guest starred in over 60 other television shows, including such classics as Matlock, Murder She Wrote, The Dukes of Hazard, Brothers, Baywatch, and the animated series’, Batman and Superman. Her TV movies include The Song of the Lark, for PBS, A Family Lost, for Lifetime, Murder at the Presidio for USA, and The Taking of Flight 847, The Uli Derickson Story, for NBC.

Leslie considers it an amazing blessing that director, screenwriter, musician, composer and performance artist legend Rob Zombie cast her as Mother Firefly in his box office hit The Devil’s Rejects and, again, as Patty Frost in his first, and very successful, Halloween. His faith in her dark side seems to have opened the door to a delicious array of juicy villains. Not only has she had the opportunity to create some remarkably chilling characters, she has greatly enjoyed meeting and greeting many horror fans over the past few years.

Horror films House, (Betty) with Bill Moseley and Michael Madson, and The Dead Calling, (Marge) with Sid Haig, are both available on DVD. She stars with Kane Hodder in the recently released, The Afflicted, and is a writer, with Jason Stoddard, and producer, with Lee Dashiell and David Hilburn, on the film, as well. Her other recent horror titles are Rift, Mirror Image, Compound Fracture, DaZe, Number Runner, and Sorority Party Massacre. They are all in different stages of ‘finished.’ Just an aside; Tyler Mane plays her step-son in Compound Fracture (he also co-wrote and co-produced) – he was her natural son in The Devil’s Rejects, and her killer in Halloween.

5 CHRISTOPHER MURRAY — Clarke Wilcox

Christopher Murray is one of today's most recognizable character actors, having appeared in a wide range of film, television and stage roles alongside some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Although most of his work has been in film, he is probably best known as Dean Rivers, the comically inept headmaster of Pacific Coast Academy, in the hit Nickelodeon series "Zoey 101".

The son of two-time Emmy Award-winning film and television actress Hope Lange (Peyton Place (1957), The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968), Pocketful of Miracles (1961)) and Academy Award®-nominated leading man Don Murray (Bus Stop (1956), Advise & Consent (1962)), Murray was raised in a show business family. His roots in the entertainment industry go back another generation, with his maternal grandfather, Arthur Lange, a conductor for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., maternal grandmother a New York stage actress, paternal grandmother a Ziegfeld dancer and paternal grandfather a noted Broadway stage manager and performer.

Past film credits include Crossing Over (2009) with Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd, Smokin' Aces (2006) (with Ben Affleck and Jeremy Piven, The Man (2005) with Eugene Levy and Samuel L. Jackson, Just Cause (1995) with Sean Connery and Laurence Fishburne, The Pelican Brief (1993) with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, Virtuosity (1995) also with Washington and Russell Crowe and Dante's Peak (1997) with Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. His first film role was in the Academy Award®-winning picture All the President's Men (1976) with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

Murray's work in television includes series such as Zoey 101 (2005), Saving Grace (2007), The West Wing (1999), Crossing Jordan (2001), 7th Heaven (1996), JAG (1995), Carnivàle (2003) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990), as well as made-for-television movies including Sacrifices of the Heart (2007), A Place Called Home (2004) and Route 9 (1998).

ABOUT THE CREW

YURI SHAPOCHKA — Director, Writer, Producer

From the green steppes of Ukraine to Southern hospitality of Alabama to the warm sun of California, award-winning director Yuri Shapochka has travelled a long way in his artistic career. As a journalist, Yuri produced and directed documentaries for Ukrainian television. He has now combined his experience with a passion for independent film.

Films by Yuri include “Clubhouse,” “High Expectations,” “Waiting,” “The Little Theater,” and “Six Blocks Wide.” His films have been shown at the LA Shorts Festival, Director’s Lounge in Berlin, the Cannes Film Festival’s Short Film Corner, the Maryland Film Festival, the Naoussa International Film Festival in Greece, the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival, the New York International Independent Film Festival, and Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

A dark comedy "High Expectations," written and directed by Yuri, won “Best Dark Comedy” award at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and the Platinum Remi

6 Award at the 40th WorldFest in Houston - the 3rd oldest International Film Festival in the US. His short drama “Waiting” won Highest Achievement Award at Jokara-Micheaux Film Festival in Southwest Georgia as well as a Platinum Remi at Houston WorldFest.

Shapochka’s film, “Six Blocks Wide,” was premiered in Italy at A Film for Peace Festival, where it was chosen as one of the 4 top finalists with peace topic such as non-violence and respect of human rights. The cast included noted actress Tonea Stewart ("A Time to Kill," "In the Heat of the Night," "The Rosa Parks Story"). "Six blocks alters view of world" wrote John Archibald in the Birmingham News.

Most recently Yuri won The Cultural Alliance’s Grant to Individual Artists and The Award of Excellence in Filmmaking at the Canada International Film Festival.

Yuri carries a Master's degree in Arts, Television and Journalism from Donetsk State University in the Ukraine and a Master of Science from Donetsk National Technical University. Yuri is a founder and owner of Shape Films LLC, a privately held company specializing in independently produced fiction films and documentaries, animation, experimental works and short subjects.

DAVID BROWER — Director of Photography, Co-producer

Award-winning cinematographer David Brower has the eye of a painter, the calm mindset of a Zen master, and the ability of a chameleon to adapt visual styles to story needs. A photographer from the age of fifteen, he shot miles of film, one frame at a time, before he ever touched a movie camera. David was drawn to film through intense interests in many diverse art forms, and the idea that only film brings them all together so immediately and so well. Moody, emotional, atmospheric and uplifting images are hallmarks of the Brower style. To merge art and technology, film or digital, in a way that evokes a response is his stock in trade. Laughter, tears, fear or longing; your story brought to life in moving images.

David has spent three decades communicating through the art of moving pictures. He has been involved in projects ranging from full length motion pictures to television commercials. Brower's work has garnered local and regional Addys, national Tellys, and innumerable industry specific awards. His film credits include "Lifted", a full length feature from Academy Award® nominated Lexi Alexander and "The Saints of Mount Christopher" with Tom Sizemore, Clifton Powell, and Russ Blackwell.

PRICE PETHEL — Visual Effects Supervisor, Colorist

Oscar-winning colorist and visual artist Price Pethel worked on A-list movies such as Titanic, Apollo 13, True Lies, and many others. He won the Academy Award® in 2002 for the pioneering effort on the NUKE-2D Compositing Software. In the last year alone, Price Pethel has gone from finishing the seminal stereo documentary, U2 3D, to the complex work of restoring an Academy Award® winning documentary for the Disney archives. After a long and storied career in the industry, Price Pethel shows no sign of slowing down.

CLUBHOUSE IN THE MEDIA

"Metaphorical tale" — Examiner

"The forefront of the dark comedy genre" — JustLuxe Magazine

"Making you laugh when you should be horrified" — Latino Weekly Review

"A compelling look at honesty and corruption" — Long Island Magazine

"Deliciously disturbing" — Birmingham News

"A unique vision" — IN Hollywood Magazine