LOCAL SAN DIEGO FILMMAKERS TO MAKE PARAMOUNT PICTURES 3D MOVIE – Just one of several successful movies produced recently by this local company

SAN DIEGO, CA (August 8, 2010) – local San Diego filmmakers, Vernon Mortensen, Neil Trusso and Kelly Parks of Unconventional Films have signed a contract with Paramount Studios lot producer, Fishman Productions Ltd., to transform their highly successful web series, “Universal Dead,” into a 3D movie to be released by Paramount Pictures in late 2011.

“Universal Dead” the web series stars DB Sweeney (The Cutting Edge, Fire in the Sky, TV’s Jericho), Doug Jones (Hell Boy 1 & 2, Fantastic 4-Rise of the Silver Surfer, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Gary Graham (Star Trek: Enterprise, TV’s Alien Nation and Robot Jox) and was filmed entirely in San Diego County.

“This represents the first time a web series has made the leap to a major motion picture,” says Jeff Fishman, CEO of Fishman Productions. “It’s something of a rarity for a web series to ever have a life beyond the internet and this may represent a paradigm shift in the industry.”

“Universal Dead” surprised everyone in the movie business when the web series was included in the sci-fi mega-website io9’s “List of Buzz Winners for the 2010 Comic Con.” This list of 11 projects included movies and TV shows like “The Avengers,” “The Green Lantern,” “Battle Field Los Angeles,” AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and NBC’s “The Event.” Mortensen adds, “We were really humbled to be included on this list with such an amazing group of studio and network projects.”

“It’s been a very busy year for Unconventional Films,” says Trusso. In addition to the upcoming “Universal Dead 3D movie,” the San Diego based production company also has “The Kid: Chamaco,” a boxing movie starring Martin Sheen and Michael Madsen in theaters across the United States in July and August of 2010. Unconventional Films is also producing a western called, “The Sorrow” to begin filming in the fall of 2010.

Mortensen, Trusso and Parks have been longtime San Diego residents. Both Trusso and Mortensen served in San Diego in the US Navy; Trusso as a Navy SEAL at SEAL Team 3 and Mortensen as a Navy SWCC commando at Special Boat Team 12. Parks, who is the world’s only Ex-CIA/Rocket Scientist/Stand-up Comic/Screenwriter, moved to San Diego to work as a software engineer over 12 years ago and notes, “We love San Diego. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world and is still close enough to LA for our partners to attend industry meetings.”

About Unconventional Films

Unconventional Films is a full service production company specializing in genre movies, TV and new media films based out of San Diego, CA. Recently, the company has added web series to their slate of movie and TV projects, starting with their first web series, “The Crusader,” starring Colin Cunningham (Stargate SG-1, Electra, The 6th Day).

For more information on Unconventional Films, visit www.unfilms.com.

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Comic Con!

Universal Dead will be at Comic Con. Here’s a list of our appearances so far:

–We will have a presence (as in we’ll be hanging out a lot but without any set times) at the Twin Suns booth (#5624). We will have Universal Dead posters up at their booth and will even provide Universal Dead showings to small groups.

–We currently have nothing specific planned for Thursday or Sunday.

–The ICONS events at Horton Plaza are in the Horton Plaza Event Center above Sam Goody.

–The Celebrate the Web event is at the Bristol Hotel, just north of Horton Plaza

Friday
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1:30–2pm, X-Sanguin booth (#433), Universal Dead cast signing (Gary Graham, Doug Jones, Valerie Perez) (Vernon, Neil and I will also be there)

5pm-7pm, Autograph Area #AA18, Universal Dead cast signing (Gary Graham, Doug Jones, Valerie Perez, Vernon Mortensen, Neil Trusso, Kelly Parks, Eddie Mcmullen)

Saturday
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1pm–2pm, ICONS Event at Horton Plaza, Screening of Universal Dead followed by panel/Q&A. (Gary Graham, Valerie Perez, Vernon Mortensen, Neil Trusso, Kelly Parks)

4pm–5:30pm, Celebrate the Web Event, Sci-Fi Panel (Kelly Parks)

5pm–7pm, Autograph Area #AA20, Universal Dead cast signing (Gary Graham, Doug Jones, Valerie Perez, Vernon Mortensen, Neil Trusso, Eddie Mcmullen)

9:30pm–10:30pm, ICONS Event at Horton Plaza, Screening of Universal Dead followed by panel/Q&A. (Doug Jones, Valerie Perez, Gary Graham, Vernon Mortensen, Neil Trusso, Kelly Parks)

10:30pm–late, ICONS party

Post Production Progress

We need to re-shoot a few small scenes from episode 1 to complete the episode. The plan is to do that over the next two weekends.

The Crusader submitted to the Streamys!

The Crusader has been submitted for a Streamy award! You can vote for it here. You’ll need the category (Best Comedy Web Series), the Series Name (“The Crusader”) and the Series URL (WatchTheCrusader.com). Thanks!

Cast Photo from Universal Dead

Cast of Universal Dead

Back row: Kelly Parks, Doug Jones — Middle Row: Craig Sawyer, Vernon Mortensen, Gary Graham, D.B. Sweeney, Neil Trusso — Front: Valerie Perez

After Effects

Unconventional Films is looking for a skilled SFX person, able to do wonders in Adobe After Effects. Preferably someone in San Diego.

Hey all you film geeks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Vernon Mortensen:

Here we finally are… on WordPress.  I am pretty excited to start this blog and to recount all of our experiences as we press on through these tough times for filmmakers.  I welcome all film geeks, as well as those mildly interested, in all things film related.

Unconventional Films is now in post production on our new horror/sci-fi web series, Universal Dead.  We pulled out all of the stops for this one and have some pretty big movie and TV stars cast in our leading roles.  Neil and I decided that we wanted to include more of our “Navy Buddies” so we also cast some real US Navy SEALs to play the Navy SEALs in Universal Dead, including Cade Courtley the host of Spike TV’s “Surviving Disaster.”

The first season of our comedy web series, The Crusader, is now ready for DVD with a final running time of 38 minutes. there will be another 30 or so minutes of extras; out takes, cut scenes, interviews with the cast and filmmakers, as well as some behind the scenes footage.

Our first venture into the feature film world, the gritty boxing drama, Chamaco (starring Martin Sheen) will be in theaters soon.  The movie was accepted into the Palm Springs International Film Festival, so we will postpone the release until after that festival.

We will be shooting two westerns back-to-back this Spring; The Sorrow and Here Lies Miguel Cervantes.  We are shooting in Oregon and should be terribly exhausted when it’s all over!  Post-Production will also be done in Oregon at Chambers Studios near Eugene.

That’s it for now folks.