Southern movie, Ruth, is continuing its growth in its early development stage. Written by L.A. actor David Novak and his writing partner Frank Galvan, Ruth is an adaption of one of the most beautiful love stories every written, found in the biblical book of Ruth.
In this film adaption, the story takes place in the Deep South during the tumultuous times of the U.S Civil War. Ruth, her family, and her neighbors must find faith and make choices concerning abolition and slavery, as well as deal with the growing hardships caused by the war and the union blockades. This moving and beautiful story comes alive with new characters such as Ruth's sister Claire, a slave friend Ruben, and a kind-hearted plantation owner named Leland Tammer.
The producers are considering several locations for filming Ruth. They are zeroing in on Louisiana at this time, because of the states' lucrative film incentives, scenery, and architecture that will help make Ruth come visually alive to audiences. Texas Producer and Director, Michael Walters, has already begun some talks with potential investors and distributors for this film.
Walters says, "Our ideal budget is $8 million which would allow us to cast its five leads with A list actors. For instance Shailene Woodley would be ideal for the role of Ruth in this adaption. Michelle Pfeiffer would be ideal for the role of Naomi. Further, we are considering a few other names for Ruth's husband, and for the cameo role for the Harriett Tubman character.
If we end up with a lower budget which we too are strongly considering, then we will then adapt our casting choices and limit to only casting two A list actors and then cast strongly credited supporting actors to carry this film. For instance we have already cast Billy Blair Jr, an actor already personally known to me, and whom many say may be the next Danny Trejo. Billy's character, Luther, is the partner to a slave hunter group led by the character, Nathan. The producers and I could envision Billy Bob Thornton playing that role.
Right now we continue to hone our budgets, and seek qualified investors and distributors. Each film project I engage in has its own unique developmental challenges. Having produced one other feature film, previously and in the ongoing process of filming My Heart Dies With You, as well as developing The Prodigal, and The Deadliest Gun, I recognize how important it is to build fans of this project. Our Facebook followers are growing, in large part to our unique Greeting to Ruth project, which has been met with strong success.
Our Greeting to Ruth has been a fun project in which we have invited anyone to submit their best southern style, take on a civil war theme, and create a short 30 second improvisational video. (Please continue to send us your best southern-style improvisation with either a greeting or a reference to "Miss Ruth" in a video 30 seconds or less. Send your video or a youtube or vimeo link to Ruththemovie2014@gmail.com. I am going to take sound bites from the best improv videos that are submitted to RUTH and roll them in the closing credits of the film.) This has given a chance for everyone to show off their best acting. I believe to date we have received two dozen videos and I have been told there are more coming. Some of the actors have even dressed in period costumes and period settings. We have seen some wonderful performances. I believe even two of our submitters have even landed roles in other film projects. How exciting is that? We never intended this improvisational project to be an audition for Ruth, but just a fun way to promote the project. It has been interesting when a submitter actually mimics a story line in the script when they have had no access to the script at all!
The first open casting for RUTH will be for Nathan and Luther's posse of slave hunters, Hannibal, Ephraim, & Harley. These are Caucasian men who are in their 20's-30's, vengeful, ruthless, greedy, nasty with a war-torn look, excellent horseman, and a sharpshooter. Send a headshot, full body shot, resume your demo reel and link to your IMDb page to Ruththemovie@gmail.com. We will require that you demo your horseback skills for final casting. Preference given to Texas or Louisiana SAG or SAG eligible actors.
We are asking followers to continue to support this project and to be continually active in sharing posts from Ruth's Facebook page on their own Facebook wall, and in turn invite their friends. We have close to 1000 Likes right now. If our followers would share this project with their Facebook friends we could easily grow the buzz for this film to ten thousand or more followers. Many people tell me each and every day how they want to see more and more of these types of films. We need them to not only share their desire for films like Ruth but to share and talk up these projects. My team and I are dedicated to never rushing to film like its some addiction but to take the time to mature and develop a worthy project into something timeless and spectacular."
Please support this movie on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/RUTHthemovie .
For further information, contact me, Dr. Diane Howard, at dhoward@vvm.com or visit my Web site at http://www.dianehoward.com.
See ongoing work on professional, epic, redemptive movies on my Pro Films Facebook site, https://www.facebook.com/groups/profilms13/ .
I am on IMDb as as a dialogue/dialect/acting coach for feature films. See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1189677/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 .
