More news of Hollywood alumni working together.
Jake Avnet (C'05, Co-Chairman of Undergraduate Film Advisory Board, Founder of the Lecture Series, "Talking Film") produced a short film called LAST MEAL with Penn alum writer Tracy Park (W'05), Micah Fitzerman-Blue (Harvard grad), and director Mark Stern (Princeton grad).
This short film has been the recipient of two very prestigious grants:
the Special Project Grant from the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, as well as the
Panavision New Filmmaker's Grant. The film stars Fran Kranz (
The Village,
Matchstick Men, and the upcoming TV series "The Dollhouse"), and Nikki Griffin (
Dukes of Hazzard and
The Fast and the Furious).
Per Jake,
"Fantasy becomes reality in this action/comedy about a suburban couple that ventures into a diner and find themselves in the middle of a "situation". A man seeking vengeance for the death of his father has finally tracked down the culprit, the chef and owner of the diner."
Jake and his crew have just recently begun the festival run, and have been accepted into
AFI Fest 2008 -- one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The film will screen in competition at the ArcLight theater in Hollywood, on November 6th and 7th. For more information, please visit the blog:
http://lastmeal.wordpress.com
Jake's zest for film production seems to have been passed down from his talented Penn alum director/producer father,
Jon Avnet (C'71).
Click here for some of my past posts about Jon.
Click here to find out how Jake got his start as a producer and what other big projects he has in the works.
More Penn alumni working together in Hollywood!
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But after an ethereal massage in which her therapist releases her blocked chi, she wakes up to discover that she’s been whisked seven years back, back to her old life, her old self, back to the moments in which she made decisions that charted her future course. And now that she’s back, she’s faced with the same roadblocks and obstacles, only this time, armed with hindsight, she can choose a different path and finally lay to rest all of her "what ifs."
Much more than a story about a real life desperate housewife. Instead, it speaks to so many of our tiny, lingering doubts, the same doubts that send us googling old friends and exes or wistfully pulling out pictures of days gone by. And through Jillian’s journey, in which she rediscovers the mother who abandoned her, reacquaints herself with the strengths she once deemed important, and may literally rewrite her future, we all get a chance to peek inside the windows of our own "what ifs," and consider if the path we took was the one that has granted us the most happiness.”