Gothic
A
Girl Confronts Betrayal & Her Friend's Tragic Disappearance
A Terrible Crime Forces a Girl to Choose Between Her Boyfriend, Family & Friends, or Doing the Right Thing - Based on a True Story
Good Night Sweet Prince: Director TBA & Original Screenplay by Russ Williams—Shooting To Start Sometime in 2015
Russ Williams, the film's producer, wrote the script and set it in a Hispanic community in east Los Angeles. GPI is seeking a Hispanic director to helm the film. The setting is contemporary, and the cast is mostly Hispanic. Good Night Sweet Prince, a crime drama, will be GPI's first non-horror film.
Based on a True Story
The film's story is based on a real-life U.S, crime that happened in Northern California in 2002. Gwen Araujo (February 24, 1985 – October 3, 2002), a Hispanic born Edward Araujo, Jr., was an American teenage pre-operative transgender woman who was murdered in Newark, California. She was killed by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled her after discovering she was transgender. Two of the men were convicted of second-degree murder and two plead guilty/no contest to voluntary manslaughter.
GPI intends to submit the film to the festival circuit in the U.S. The timeliness and social relevance of the story is sure to find great interest in U.S. international as well as LGBT film festivals. Also, the idea of an American story becoming "globalized" and set in Asia is novel and sure to pique media interest. At the time of the murder, the crime and its story garnered a tremendous amount of publicity and mass interest in the U.S. media, including a documentary aired on Lifetime cable television channel. The feature was titled A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, and starred J. D. Pardo and Mercedes Ruehl. It aired to great critical acclaim in June 2006.
Not a Documentary but a Tragic Crime Drama
However, Good Night Sweet Prince is not a documentary, but rather a feature film and crime drama. It takes place in a large city and concerns a high Latina school senior, Maria, who falls in love with a boy outside of her working-class, Hispanic community. However, the boyfriend, Bobby, is involved with a gang of drug dealers, who pull him into a web of violence street crime. She is in denial over her boyfriend's shady ties and can only think about how much she loves him.
Transgender Friend & Horrific Tragedy
Maria's best friend, Andrea, is secretly a young man living as a woman. Only Maria knows her friend's secret. However, trying to be helpful, she invites Andrea to a party, but there things go horribly wrong. Tragic crime follows, and ensuing events pull all the young people down a dark path of guilt, lying, threats and hiding from the police.
Tough Times Mean Tough Solutions
Only Maria can find a way to pull herself out of this difficulty and has to seek the help of her family. She has to choose between inaction, that is, "not getting involved" and doing the right thing. How this story unfolds and comes to an exciting climax is not to be missed.
Take a Journey to Realms of Fantasy, Where PanDEMONium Reigns
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Within the Magical Lands of Fantasy, in PanDEMONium, Princes Romance Their Princesses, Monsters Threaten Kingdoms & Wizards Use Good & Evil Magic To Open New Realms Before Your Eyes.
PanDEMONium: Director, TBA & Written by DJ Perry — Shooting Planned To Start in Late 2015 |
The story in PanDEMONium, takes place within the magical lands of Middle Earth-type fantasy, a place where princes romance their princesses, monsters threaten kingdoms and wizards use good and evil magic to open new realms before people's eyes.
The Prince Has Problems
By all rights, Prince Freeacas should be a happy man. He will soon become the king of his homeland of Jalish. The city of Seth Rye in Malicos has just fallen in conquest by the soldiers of his realm. He has a beautiful and loving Princess Anne by his side. His close and loyal friend, Jalel, obeys his every command. However, all is not well in the Castle Jalish. What's the problem? It's the reason Prince Freeacas will be crowned king. That's the sadness in his heart.
His beloved father, King Haggert, has fallen in the battle for Seth Rye. His death lies heavy on the land and in the prince's heart. He didn't die fighting the enemy bravely in battle. Instead, a hellish monster the king should have been able to control turned on the monarch and killed him, just when the battle was almost over. Dark wizardry is definitely in the air. The king's ferocious magic guardian became his murderer, and it's now on the loose to wreak further havoc in the kingdom. Only one man can stop this thing come hot from hell, and that's Haggert's son, Prince Freeacas himself.
Killing a Powerful Monster
How do you kill an unfettered creature spawned of magic? The princess and Jalel both worry that Freeacas may be in over his head in tackling a monster that may not die by the sword. However, Freeacas knows he can't find and kill this thing alone, and he promptly enlists the aid of a young wizard named Tristen and an adventurer, Osbourne, to help with his quest. In spite of the protests of Anne and others, Freeacas sets off on his mission accompanied by his two new helpers, Jalel and a few good knights.
However, killing the monster becomes complicated when the ruler of Jalish's rival kingdom of Malicos, King Karth and his ambitious general, Kalak, seek to take over the monster. Still smarting from his recent loss of Seth Rye to Freeacas, Karth gets news that the monster is out of control. He plots revenge by calling on his own elder and powerful wizard, Lentar. Karth wants to gain mastery of the monster for himself. He hopes to turn it against Freeacas and his intrepid band of hunters. If he can kill the prince and use this creature for his own ends, Karth believes he can end his losing streak against the forces of Jalish, get Anne for himself and rule both kingdoms.
Age-Old Struggle for Kingdoms
Yet, the story takes many unexpected twists and turns from there. As Freeacas and Karth vie for control of the monster, the fate of both kingdoms hangs in the balance as they realize their aims are in mortal conflict. Political intrigue, black magic and betrayal complicate the goals of both men, and they soon realize that only one of them will emerge from this quest and struggle alive. As the two men battle it out, can Princess Anne arrive with reinforcements in time? Can either man trust his closest allies? Most important, can anyone control this terrible beast before it ravages both kingdoms?
Freeacas discovers that magic can be truly difficult to harness, especially when it's wielded by your friends and your enemies. As much as he would like, he can't control everyone under his command. The prince finds out that the powers of wisdom and love will always triumph over kingly power. Even though brute force and armies can help, only a prince and future king who makes the right decisions can save the day. Triumph lies within his grasp, but he must learn to rely on those he can really trust and a princess who loves him passionately and without reservation, more so than he ever realized.
Endearing Story of Romance & Adventure
The film PanDEMONium is an exciting and endearing story of romance, adventure and the struggle of one man to realize truly what it means to be a selfless ruler. Only then can he win out over his enemies, have the princess he loves and be the just and righteous king that destiny would have him become.
For more information on DJ Perry, see his page in IMDb and the website for his film company Collective Development, Inc., which is now in partnership with GPI.
They Say You Can't Go Home Again:
Maybe They're Right!
Gothic Pictures International's Planned Film, Shadow of Death, Tells the Story of Family Conflict, Fears of Those Closest to You & Ancient Evil Forces Awakened From a Fiery Volcano.
Shadow of Death: Director, TBA & Written by Russ Williams — Shooting Planned To Start in 2016
As Shadow of Death opens, Joe returns home at age 31, to the small island town of San Bernardo. He had been working as a reporter in a big city for ten years. Now his father is dead, and he's inherited the town newspaper. He wants to take over the business, but he also has a more pressing personal matter to settle.
Joe left home ten years ago because an old family feud on the island destroyed his marriage. His wife, Teresa, was from the "wrong family." Her family has since kept him estranged from his son, Tim (now 13) for all these years. Joe's wife has died recently, and Joe wants Tim back.
Joe Arrives Home at a Town of Dark Secrets
He arrives at the island greeted by his sister, Jenny, 28, and discovers some grim realities. The newspaper is defunct, Timmy's grandmother refuses to hand over the boy and his older brother, Victor, 35, still appears to hate him, because of issues in their past. Joe gets help from an old buddy, Mike Hunter, 33, the town police chief who virtually works for Victor, as well as from other friends. Still, his causes seem to be doomed. The 100-year-old family resentments are now even worse, since oil was discovered on the island a few years ago.
Beginning of New Romance
Then, he meets Sandra, 25, a U.S. geologist who has traveled to the town to study the sleeping volcano that dominates the island's landscape. She's looking for data on unusual earthquake activity that has attracted the attention of the college where she works, Cal Tech, in Pasadena, California. She comes to the town newspaper office to check its archives for stories on past volcanic eruptions and realizes the oil drilling is right next to the volcano. She and Joe work together to discover more about what's going on and end up finding romance.
Father Finally Meets Son
Meanwhile, Mike is able to help sneak Tim away from his grandmother, where the boy is dominated by this stern family matriarch, the 67-year-old Czarina. Father and son are able to renew their relationship from strangers into friends and try to keep on meeting despite family resistance.
However, problems arise from Joe's own family, as his brother Victor, during a heated argument, forbids him to write any stories critical of Victor's oil business. He even has thugs vandalize the newspaper building. Joe's home and office are virtually destroyed. Czarina discovers that Joe and Tim are meeting secretly and “grounds” Tim indefinitely. Joe feels like all his efforts to better his life are at a standstill, and Sandra is his only consolation.
Blinding Flash & Volcanic Mystery
However, matters become still more complicated when bizarre happenings overtake the island. A mysterious, blinding flash seems to erupt from the volcano, causing everyone to black out for several seconds. Sandra is determined to investigate the cause. However, Victor controls the oil company that owns all the land around the mountain. He refuses to let Sandra study the volcano or discover exactly what has happened. He threatens violence and allows no one into the drilling compound. Also, he and a mysterious elder scientist, Dr. Erik Casalan, keep all events there a secret.
After the flash, people on the island begin to behave strangely, as if being changed into someone or something else. People can't trust even their closest loved ones. Only Joe, Sandra, Jenny, Tim, Mike and a few of their friends remain unaffected. Also, communication with the outside world is cut off. Sandra discovers an unknown form of radiation coming from the oil-drilling site. Could this be the cause of the many things going wrong? If so, can they discover what's behind it?
Strange Events & Human Mutations
As events on the island spin out of control, petty family conflicts seem less important to Joe, Sandra and their friends than trying to survive. Local people are disappearing or worse, mutating physically in bizarre ways. Those who are shape-shifting try to kill Joe and those with him. Sandra soon realizes that oil drilling has tapped into an ancient energy from the center of the volcano, and it's affecting the entire island. Whatever it is seems to have an intelligence and intentions that can only be described as evil.
Then, Mike poses a more important question: If something is changing most of the people on the island, why isn't it affecting them? Only Victor and especially Casalan seem to have the answers that explain all of these mysteries, and they refuse to talk. What happens next is a mind-bending ride into horror and adventure that doesn't stop until the terrifying conclusion.
Story Creates a Meeting of East & West
GPI has once again created a story that blends the best of eastern and western horror. Shadow of Death could be described as H.P. Lovecraft meets The Grudge. No person or family exists alone in the present. Everyone lives with others, and all their histories intertwine—yesterday, tomorrow and every day. The main characters have to forget old grudges and join together in a struggle more important than petty quarrels or even survival. Not only are their own lives at stake but life as we know it on the entire planet!
