Silver Beach Productions, Inc and BusEye Films, LLC are pleased to announce that, nearly a year after its World Premiere, independent short film Opportunity Knocks continues to receive accolades from festivals and competitions nationwide. Most recently the CINE award winning dark comedy starring Tristan Rogers was a hit at the inaugural 2008 South Florida Indy Film Festival held January 22 at the historic Colony Theater in Miami Beach, FL.
“Great script, great directing, and superb acting,” is how festival director Jon Rivera sums up the short. “Opportunity Knocks is one of the films that inspired me to start working on the 2009 festival immediately.”
Opportunity Knocks tells the story of a distraught woman who’s suicide attempt via tea laced with poison is interrupted when Death’s bumbling assistant arrives early—causing “mortis interruptis”. Suzanne Niedland of Jupiter, FL plays suicidal Luci and Tim Powell of Orlando, FL portrays Death’s assistant, Mr. Morehead. Rogers, a veteran of over 40 films and television programs including the legendary Robert Scorpio in the ABC soap opera General Hospital, brings the character of Death to life.
“Receiving recognition for your work is always an honor, especially when it’s in your own back yard,” states director Aaron Wells of Wellington, FL. Wells also edited the film in addition to co-producing with Niedland. Wells adds, “We had a great cast and crew. It shows the level of professionalism available in our film community, right here in South Florida.”
Niedland adds, “We created Opportunity Knocks as an experiment to test the chemistry among the actors and work with the characters and story. All of us who worked on the film continue to be encouraged by the positive reaction we receive on the festival circuit and from our peers.”
According to Rivera, “The (South Florida Indy Film Festival) audience, which was over a hundred strong, was taken for a ride: one minute almost in tears at a teenager who died or a prisoner tortured, the next laughing at Death himself.”
Opportunity Knocks received a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award in December 2007, and was also an Official Selection and Film of Note at the 2007 Moondance Film Festival in Hollywood, CA. The short held its world premiere at the 12th Annual Palm Beach International Film Festival in April of 2007. Much of the cast and crew were in attendance, including Rogers who also hosted the festival’s Black Tie Gala. Nearly 200 film-goers turned out for the premiere including several of Rogers’ fans who traveled over 1,000 miles to be part of the festivities.
Wells and Niedland are currently in development on several film and television projects, including a pilot based on Opportunity Knocks. Wells is also in post-production on Rock and a Hard Place, a feature-length documentary about South Florida’s lost rock music scene featuring several prominent names in the music industry, including Coz Candler and Mike Skill of The Romantics; record producers Tony Bongiovi (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Ozzy Ozbourne) and Glen Kolotkin (Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Jett); and a yet-to-be-discovered Johnny Depp of The Kids. Niedland is in development on a feature documentary and a feature narrative and will soon be seen as a co-host for the Production Year in Review on Channel 20, produced by the Palm Beach Film and Television Commission.
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