premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival
February 26, 2010
(New York, NY) – SimonSays Entertainment chief Ron Simons, who received
broad acclaim at Sundance 2010 for his company's debut feature Night
Catches Us, is developing four new creative projects for film,
television, and the stage. Feature films Highway to Nowhere and Gun
Hill Road, the play “Shoe Story,” and a television series, “It's
All Elementary” are currently in development and are slated for
completion in 2010 and 2011.
"These new SimonSays projects are true gems of
storytelling that delve into diversity and relish in the unexpected.
They have in common our central goal to tell every story," says Mr.
Simons. Immigration drama Highway
to Nowhere will be the second feature from writer/director Lanre
Olabisi (August the First) and won the 2009 Atlanta Film Festival
Screenplay Competition. Highway to Nowhere tells the story of a
conflicted Border Patrol agent and is scheduled to begin filming in New
Mexico on Fall of 2010.
Writer/director Rashaad Ernesto Green's debut
full-length feature film, Gun Hill Road, follows a recently
released convict settling back into his life as a father and husband. Green, a Bronx native and Dartmouth grad with an MFA in acting from NYU,
has directed two award-winning shorts, Premature and Choices.
Gun Hill Road is in production with filming expected to begin in
The Bronx this summer.
An
animated series, "It's All Elementary," is in the pilot phase and is
seeking funding for a first season of production. "It's All Elementary"
was created by actor/writer J. Kyle Manzay. And for the theater, the
urban fairytale “Shoe Story,” a play by Ben Snyder, will be brought to
the stage under the direction of Thomas Kail in 2011.
SimonSays Entertainment
was founded in 2009 by actor and producer Ron Simons, whose
multifaceted background also includes film and stage production,
mentoring, business, and technology. As a professional actor, his film
and television credits include 27 Dresses, Mystery Team,
"Law & Order," and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." He shares the
London Stage Award for Acting Excellence for "Boy Steals Train," a play
he co- developed. He helped produce "Ain't Supposed to Die of a
Natural Death" at Classical Theatre of Harlem and August Wilson's final
Broadway show "Radio Golf." A former software engineer, Mr. Simons
developed systems at Hewlett-Packard and IBM and developed Artificial
Intelligence systems before serving as a marketing executive at
Microsoft Corporation. He is also currently a Board Member of Columbia
College's Board of Visitors, University of Washington School of Drama's
Advisory Board, and The Eagle Academy Foundation. A Detroit native, Mr.
Simons and his company are based in New York.
With a mission to "tell
every story," SimonSays Entertainment, Inc. develops diverse projects
for film, television, and live theater. SimonSays selects projects that
represent indigenous and underrepresented minority cultures from all
reaches of the globe, striving to work with writers, directors, and
storytellers who bring their lives and communities to light. For more
information on the web visit www.simonsaysentertainment.net
