Sacramento Cop Shoots "Lunatic Messiah"

Just grabbed this off the teletype. Check out that last para!

PRESS RELEASE

For:
Bad Highway Productions
1412 21st Street, Suite B
Sacramento, CA 95816

Contact:
Ross Pruden, Publicist
415/823-0672
lunatic@rosspruden.com


SACRAMENTO COP TO SHOOT PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER LUNATIC MESSIAH
Principal Photography to Start on Feature Film Halloween 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 3rd, 2006

SACRAMENTO, CA -- On Halloween day, Doc Maxwell -- full-time police officer and President of Bad Highway Productions -- will begin shooting Lunatic Messiah, a psychological thriller feature film. Pre-production started this week at Bad Highway's new office space in midtown Sacramento.

Maxwell was still a full-time police officer when he incorporated Bad Highway Productions five years ago, but temporarily went part-time last year to ramp up his film company. "I looked at Sacramento's film community," says Maxwell, "and thought a small production studio making high-quality films without million dollar budgets was a niche market which had not been exploited enough. Because digital video has leveled the playing field for indie filmmakers, I had intended Bad Highway to just produce shorts and features but when I read the script for Lunatic Messiah, I knew immediately I wanted to direct it myself. Lunatic Messiah was a perfect fit for Bad Highway because its story was intriguing but it could still be shot inexpensively without sacrificing any quality."

Producer Meaghan Sinclair is equally enthusiastic about the project: "We have a great team working on this project so I can't wait to see this film get to principal." Still photographer Greg Pond of Greg Pond Photography in San Francisco will lens the feature: "Bad Highway has used Greg in the past," says Maxwell, "and we really like his work, so we're giving him a lot of freedom to make this film look however he wants." Maxwell has already cast actors from Sacramento, including Aysha (Something In The Clearing, Lost & Found, and Deer Season), Matt Lengerich (7eventy5ive, 99 Pieces), and Tyler Cook (Nine is Mine, 7eventy5ive), but is always looking to cast extras for the larger scenes.

Lunatic Messiah follows the life of a man encountering society's apocalyptic collapse and the subsequent deteriorating sanity he faces. Writer Steve Papineau's first feature film Claude's Cafe was an official selection at 2005's New York Film Festival and his last feature film, The Scorpion and The Chainsaw, is currently in post-production. Papineau cites Saw and The Night of The Living Dead as major inspirations for Lunatic Messiah -- "Like those classics, I wanted to set Lunatic Messiah from the standpoint of a main character dealing with an outside gone crazy."

Bad Highway's next project production is Arousal, a horror feature film written and to be directed by a writer living in Sacramento. For more information about Lunatic Messiah, please visit www.lunaticmessiah.com/press or call Ross Pruden: 415/823-0672 or lunatic@rosspruden.com