Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen -- Indiegogo

CAST:

(in no order of importance or age)

Tim Thomerson

Karen Kim

Adrienne Barbeau

Natasha Alam

John Saxon

Cerina Vincent

Steve Mason

Kacey Barnfield

Michael Worth

Anya Monzikova

Lydie Denier

Alex Ballar

&

Lance Henriksen

"(God's Ears) brilliantly written and directed by Michael Worth, touches deftly upon issues of women, self-esteem, and the isolating conditions of people in two completely different but equally hidden worlds." - Methodfest 2008.

Natasha Alam on the set of "Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen".

THE INSPIRATION

We have all heard the stories and in some cases even seen a few films about the effects of growing past your golden years (the 20s) in the studio system of Tinsel Town. But there are some unsung heroes that at this very moment are still waiting outside of those big studio doors in the low budget, straight to video world of filmmaking. Some of them you have heard of and just wondered where they went. Others you have never known, and possibly may never get to. But they are all real and they are all waiting. And in some cases.... tables.

THE STORY

Writer/director Worth's follow up to his film festival winner drama "God's Ears" is a comedy "mockumentary" in the tradition of the TV series "Unscripted" and the feature films "Best In Show" and "This is Spinal Tap". "Bring Me The Head of Lance Henriksen" follows an ensemble group of creative (and not so creative) artists in the straight to video film industry, focusing on one man in particular, Tim (played by Tim Thomerson). Tim is facing the fact that ageism is alive and well in Hollywood as he discovers every morsel of a part in his age range going to character actor, Lance Henriksen. Tim will confront the not-so-pretty pretty people in Hollywood including an out of work nude body double, a reformed martial arts star and even a sexy horror actress turned romance novelist as he works his way to a face to face with the man booking every available role for those 65 and above.

Even though this will be told in a comedic way, the sensitivity of this ubiquitous subject will be addressed with respect... most of the time. "Henriksen" will take the viewer through the low budget underside of Hollywood using some of its most notable faces as themselves....

One of our leading characters, actor Tim Thomerson has been haunting Hollywood since the 1970s and has seen his share of stories and people in this town. For those not familiar with him, here was an appearance he made on the late Freddie Prinze's show in 1976:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGI1NYF7hfI

HOW IT WILL BE DONE

How this will be done: a group of talented (again, for the most part), and many well-known actors, have agreed to participate in a unique undertaking of a feature film project. Told in a humorous way, the story will touch on the real stumbling blocks with getting older and all the reactions that come with it. Working together with producers including actor Alex Ballar and Gigi Garner, daughter of Hollywood legend James Garner, Worth pulled together a framework, rather than a script, allowing for the performers to expand their real personalities as opposed to creating a new one.

Each of the scenes are scripted in terms of the direction or goal of the characters but how they get there will be discovered through the magic of improvisation. 90% of the dialogue will be improvised to give the film a more spontaneous quality and keep the actors in a state of truthfulness to the material . Actors will be portraying semi-biographical characters reflecting some aspect of their own true adventures in the business. It will incorporate a group of familiar faces (Thomerson, Henriksen, Barbeau, Lamas, Saxon, Vincent, etc.) as they take on the monolith of Hollywood and its many sacred cows. The shoot will last no more than 15 days in Southern California.

And you can help us make this all happen!

(Still above from a "pick up" day on God's Ears, exemplifying the crew size for our recent project)

(Our cast and crew winning "The Feel Good Film Festival" for "God's Ears" - 2010)

(Lance Henriksen in our production of "Devil on the Mountain")

Using a very experienced crew of technicians and cast, the film will be shot in and out of Hollywood over the course of 12 to 15 days using two HD cameras to capture the impromptu performances of our actors. It will be a mixture of The RED Camera and smaller Canon 7Ds to help us weave in and out of those places we need to weave in and out of quickly....

The RED cameras were recently used by Worth on a World War II film starring Eric Stoltz with great success and will be applied here as well for their great image and color spacing. This team of filmmakers and performers have a strong and familiar working process that has continued to evolve over the years together.

WHERE THE PLEDGES GO

The financing goals for the project from Indiegogo will be oriented mainly towards the practical side of shooting such as permits, fees, insurance and cash to make the stars I will have to beg feel like they are at least making some lunch money! While the rest of the cast and crew work for gum and a t-shirt (Please don't tell them yet) your hard earned donations will also cover tape stock, DVDs for sound storage, sound rentals and various other important aspects to keeping this in the professional realm.

Your pledges will go towards these practical aspects of filmmaking and turn this unique project into a reality. This is a very humbling budget we will be working with and an "ego-at-the-door" kind of environment. The working background of our crew in film will bring many years of experience behind and in front of the camera to lend quality and professionalism to the shoot. The film is not a comedy farce, but rather the truth of the low budget film business turned up to "11".

To view some of Grizzly Peak Films' recent work, you can look up "God's Ears" on hulu.com and "Dual" which were done with more money than this project is looking to shoot for (our budget here suits the subject matter though), but they were still produced under extremely low budget conditions with a quality output (We have also co-produced several straight to syfy channel feature films for quite larger budgets but the dynamics always change once you get over a certain budget). To view a bit of what goes on into making one of these SyFy opus', take a look at this one with the target of our affection, Lance Henriksen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

All of our films, be they dramas, thrillers or comedies, revolve around some universal truth which, through an entertaining medium, we try and tackle. In "Bring Me The Head...." we will examine the dwellers of the underside of Hollywood, they're real stories and what the "B" in B-movie really stands for....... (well, you'll find out in the film).

God's Ears trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

We hope to surpass the current goal amount here so even if we are at the max, PLEASE keep the pledges coming in! It will find a productive home.

This "experiment" of sorts to do a documentary-like expose' of the little viewed independent world of Hollywood is a long time dream for us and our intentional minuscule conditions seem to make it an appropriate partner with this web site. The message is important and the messengers delivering it carry a lot of knowledge.

But not from years and years of experience or anything........

Team on This Campaign:

Grizzly Peak Films
Producer/Director/Writer
Alex Ballar
Producer/Actor

2.0 Complete

$20,000

Raised of $10,000 Goal

0 time left

Flexible Funding campaign

This campaign received all of the funds contributed on Thu Mar 31.

Perks

for your contribution

$1 The Embryo

Okay, for $1 we will certainly send you a personal email of thanks and maybe even consider sending you money since you may need it. :-)
$5 The Newborn

You will get that same e-mail of "thanks", plus a photo of something on set that your $5 actually bought once we are in production.
$10 The Crawler

Now we're talking! This pledge will get you the official production updates sent via email on all the filming activities (this will accompany all following pledges as well), press and festival notifications not released to the public. That means you will be special!
$20 The Terrible 2s

The above reward plus one of our cool promotional products (either a bumper sticker or cup or maybe some age-related thing) that announces "I support ageism in Hollywood - Bring Me The Head Of Lance Henriksen" or some witty tag line like that.
$40 The Pre-Teen

Okay, now you are getting an official "Bring Me The Head of Lance Henriksen" hat or shirt (if we have both, your choice) that I promise will not go out of style, even as you age.
$50 The High Schooler

Now you get the official DVD release of the film! We are talking cool cover and nice looking DVD (as nice as DVDs can look, anyway) along with a personal letter of thanks from the filmmakers (and of course all the fancy email updates).
$75 The College Drop Out

You get the DVD OR the soundtrack and that awesome hat or shirt with our witty saying! Retail value of $75.78!! (not really, but the commercials always sound good when they say that)
$100 The Work Forcer

Triple digits! Okay now..... You will get the DVD, the CD soundtrack and the shirt/hat deal. Plus since you crossed that magic number a photograph will be taken on set with one of our stars (that you would actually recognize) holding a "Thank You (fill in your name)" sign (but it won't say "fill in your name" it will actually have your name in it).
$150 The Entrepreneur

A DVD, CD and shirt (or hat) plus up to two (2) names in the actual "thank you" credits during the end roll (This could actually get your name on IMDB.... no matter how old you are!)
$300 The Mid Life Crisis

The above plus a reserved seating for you at the premiere and/or wrap party! And if you can't make that we can substitute a SIGNED limited poster!
$500 The Retiree

You are now getting some serious pats on the back from us! You will get one of the limited posters we make for the film.... SIGNED by the cast, the DVD of the film and of course invitations to premiere and wrap parties. Also.... you get a walk on part in the film! And if you don't want that (we understand) we will name a character after you in the film! And it won't be the waiter!!
$1,000 The Kick The Bucket

Hello full blown producer! Welcome to your movie. As such, you get to be part of the development of the film, be personally updated on casting, pre-production and an invite to set anytime (even have a chair there for you!). The cast signed poster, the hat and of course kiss-butt treatment will also be included.
SOLD OUT! - 3 Claimed