LOCAL SAN DIEGO FILMMAKERS TO MAKE PARAMOUNT PICTURES 3D MOVIE – Just one of several successful movies produced recently by this local company
Posted by unfilms on August 12, 2010
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.
###
