Sirona Studios has the following projects lined up:
Fall 2010:
"Crimson Shadows"
Target Run time: 126 minutes
Locations:
Salisbury Beach, Newburyport, Boston Massachusetts
Director: Dennis King
Screenplay by: Dennis King
Log line:
An immigrant Muslim family successfully takes control of gambling and prostitution on the North Shore. Life is good until a body washes up on the beach. The family becomes embroiled in death and intrigue as the Jihad comes to America. Every family member is swept into this vortex of terror; each must choose his destiny as the terror intensifies, the body count rises and the Jihad takes on a life of its own.
Spring 2011:
"Emily's gift"
target run time: 115 minutes
Locations:
Paris, Bordeaux, Eymet, Monflanquin, and Villeneuve-Sur-Lot, France.
Director: Dennis King
Screenplay: Dennis King
Set in France during World War ll, a 16 year old girl who was attending a Catholic school suddenly finds herself an orphan after the death of her father. She always spent her time in a fantasy world of her own to avoid the reality of the war but she is now forced to work for her keep and gets moved to the dark orphanage attached to the school. The nuns do not understand her and set give her more chores to avoid her "Idol ness" The other children used to pretend to enjoy her stories but now taunt her and soon she finds herself without any playmates save one. At night, she tells her stories to Mary in the chapel.
The Nazi's come into her village and she is rushed out by the French underground who find her stories inspiring. She joins the French underground and gets involved in elaborate plans to undermine the occupation. She is caught and interrogated but weaves a story that buys her the time she needs to escape. Along the way, she gets involved in a love triangle between a Nazi Captain and the leader of the French underground. Love and Loyalty are tested and she dies on D Day but only after she assists in the D day landing by providing a diversion to help the allied troops.
Fall 2011 Shoot:
"8 track"
target run time: 97 minutes
Location:
Plum Island, Cape Ann, Revere, Somerville, and the North End in Boston.
Director: Dennis King
Screenplay: Dennis King
A teen comedy set in the 70's, the era of "Charlie's Angles"- Com 'on, we all had the Farah poster, "the streak", Shag carpet vans with fur on the dashboards, roller disco's, gas lines, pot heads, dorks, pork's, geek's, jocks, nerds (with their pocket protectors); Air heads (all too often cheerleaders), and kids with way too much time on their hands. The guys are all trying to get laid and surprise surprise, the girls are too, except, the rules are changed in this anything goes era.
The music alone makes this a great era to revisit. This is in early development and will need several writers to collaborate, we are looking for a combination of "Animal House", "American Pie, "Fast Times at Ridge mont High", "Student Bodies"- If you have not seen it, check it out, it is silly but fun, and lastly, a little of "The Last American Virgin".
We are not looking to copy anything from these great films but the themes are universal.
Spring 2012:
"Our Voice"
VOD show for teen girls
Location:
Sirona Studios Sound Stages
Target Run time: 5 minute Daily VOD segments
Fall 2012 shoot:
" Finding Papa"
target run time: 95 minutes
Locations:
Pigeon Cove, Gloucester, Rockport, Marblehead, & Boston
Director: Dennis King
Screenplay by: Dennis King
Calls are made to each of seven children to come to the bedside of their dying father. During the vigil, we deal with the ethical issues on death and dying. We see the family fight over the medical options, funeral arrangements, and of their past experiences with their father. Much like 12 angry men, most of the action here takes place in a hospital room at their father's bedside. Through flashbacks we are drawn into the childhood memories of the siblings with their father. They fight over slights in their past, over vying for their father's love, and over his decisions along the way. In the end, they come to learn much more about who their father was and realize their father was always there for them and each helps him on his last journey. The Vigil will touch hearts as for many baby boomers, their vigils are either fresh in their minds or will soon be a challenge to face. For many younger viewers, the issues of death and dying are surprisingly of great interest along with the moral underpinnings.
Summer 2013
"Little Bear Woman"
target run time:145 minutes
Locations:
In Massachusetts:
Berkshires, Quabin Reservoir, Boston-North End, Charles town, Olde Sturbridge Village, Marblehead, Plymouth, Boston-Wharf, Fanuiel Hall; Salem.
In Arizona:
Windslow, Navaho and Hopi Reservations
Director: Dennis King
Screenplay: Dennis King
A historical epic that starts with an 8 year old girl's adoption by Creek Indians following the death of her parents at the battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814). She is named peanut until she is 13 when she is admitted into the bear clan; she earns the name "Little Bear Woman" because of her fierce determination to survive.
The film follows her early life among the Creeks until their forced removal in what was known as " the trail of tears" (for the Creeks, this occurred in 1834); through a betrayal, she is sold to slavers on the trail as Southerners are trying to replace the slaves lost from Nat Turner's rebellion.
She escapes in 1861 rejecting all white culture and her Creek family and travels west where she is captured by the Comanche's and is once again, made a slave to Buffalo Hump only to be sold to Quanah Parker who recognizes her white heritage. He frees her and sends her away as he fears she will be captured by same Texas rangers who abducted his mother (also white). She travels along the Santa Fe Trail and stops at the Bent's Fort (trading post) where she meets William Bent's son Robert, who advises her to join the Cheyenne tribe, one of the last Plains tribes to still be free. The Cheyenne revere her skills as a medicine woman and her fearlessness on the battlefield. She is sent to represent the tribe at the Medicine Lodge and Fort Laramie Peace councils.
She hopes to live in peace and joins Black Kettle's band only to be embroiled in Sand Creek, the "Battle" of Washita River, Little Big Horn and eventually Wounded Knee. The circle of her life occurs at the inaugural of Teddy Roosevelt where a sympathetic reporter documents her life and reintroduces her to her white heritage.
Along the way, we meet Tecumseh, Charles Bird King, George Catlin, Andrew Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, Sequoyah, Creek Chief McIntosh, Cherokee Chief John Ross, Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickcock and Buffalo Bill Cody (both were Union scouts in the Civil War, a little known piece of history), Crazy Horse, Quanah Parker, Annie Oakley, Lacota Chief Sitting Bull, Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, Col. John Chivington, William and Robert Bent, Charles Goodnight, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Big Foot, Geronimo, Teddy Roosevelt (first at his Elkhorn ranch in Dakota territory in 1884 and then again in Washington at his inaugural in 1904), and lastly Quantrill's raiders including William Quantrill, Frank and Jesse James, Cole and Jim Younger and William "Bloody Bill" Anderson.
Little Bear Woman lives during a most volatile expanse of history; her moving story documents the expansive cultural changes and a woman's journey to find her place, define her alliances, and learn just who she is all within the vortex of this "manifest destiny".