David Herold Fight - Production Stills (3/28/2010)

Shooting yet again at the 1890 House, our second day involved the pre-title sequence fight, which is against David Herold. All in all, everything went quite well and we finished much earlier than yesterday. For now, KILL BOOTH takes a break from MAJOR shooting until April 10th. The next few weeks will see a few smaller scenes shot, along with intense fight choreography work on the final battle between Abe and Booth. For now, enjoy more production stills!

Lewis Powell Fight - Production Stills (3/27/2010)

Today, the cameras officially started rolling on KILL BOOTH. Our wonderful production schedule started off with the fight against Lewis Powell. Filmed in the 1890 House, the shoot went very well and everyone walked away pleased (albeit sore). Here's a slideshow of production stills that were taken during the shoot.

The Sound of Music

After a long winded search, KILL BOOTH finally has a composer! For this particular job, we've decided to outsource to Dave Volpe, who resides in Los Angeles. Dave is currently attending the "Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television" program at USC. In fact, he was even awarded a year long mentorship with film composer Thomas Newman (Wall-E, Finding Nemo). Here's a few links to his previous work:

Film Music

Concert Music

We're especially fond of "Return Home," "Heroic Space Battle," and "Mad Dance."

Choreography Montage #1

Here's a short look at some of the choreography that'll be featured in two KILL BOOTH fight scenes! Enjoy!

A Quick Update...

Just a few new things to update about. On Monday the main crew met with the entire cast and had a full script read-through. Overall it went very well and we're immensely pleased with the cast we've managed to assemble. Secondly, "Kill Booth" has officially been registered with the Writer's Guild of America. At this point, we're looking at the weekend of March 27th and 28th as our first shooting dates for the picture. Until then, we'll be finalizing pre-production requirements and trying to enjoy ourselves over Spring Break.

George Atzerodt

With the final casting of GREG SCHULZ as the cowardly "villain" GEORGE ATZERODT, the entirety of the main cast has been filled! Thus, onward we march into the territory of getting the full cast together with the main crew to do a table read-through of the script! Once accomplished, we'll move onto the task of finalizing costumes that fit the time period (and the actors). After that, it'll be time to plow headfirst into production!

Lewis Powell

The slightly psychotic villain LEWIS POWELL has been cast! The man who tried to unsuccessfully assassinate Secretary of State William Seward will be played by ALEX GAMBALE. On Lincoln's list of conspirators to kill, Powell is the second target. The fight at Powell's Estate will be filmed on location at the gorgeous 1890 House. It's a deadly duel that takes place throughout multiple rooms and levels of the house, ultimately leading to a struggle of pure willpower on the ground level. Only one lead role remains before the entire cast has been filled!

John Wilkes Booth

Our lead villain and main target of Abraham Lincoln has been cast! JOHN WILKES BOOTH will be portrayed by DAVID LOBACH. Though he's warned us that he can't grow an actual mustache, we're sure that the cost of a fake one will be made up by David's sinister approach to the role and his commitment to the intensive sword training and fighting he'll be required to do. With only a few actors left to cast, pre-production on KILL BOOTH is slowly coming to a close. Principal photography, here we come!

Mary Todd Lincoln

MARY TODD LINCOLN has officially been cast! MICHELE FORTIER will be filling the smaller, but important, part of Abraham Lincoln's wife. After her kidnapping at the hands of Booth, Abe's resolve grows stronger and his quest for vengeance is taken to a whole new level.

Mary Surratt

Our lead female villain and femme fatale, MARY SURRATT, has been cast! MEGAN CROSEN will be taking on the task of portraying the badass villainess and second-in-command to John Wilkes Booth. Her struggle against Abe is one of the most violent in the entire movie, so finding an actress who can handle both the drama and the intense action is a great asset to the production. Expect the majority of the rest of the cast to be revealed as the week goes on.

Blades of the Civil War

Having carefully looked into which weapons we'd like to use for the film, we finally decided upon our purchase. George Atzerodt's sword, which eventually becomes Abe's, is a straight-edge 1840 Non-Commissioned Sword. For John Wilkes Booth, we've purchased a Confederate Cavalry Saber as his primary weapon of attack and an Old Fashioned Horn Folder knife as his backup. All of the weapons purchased fit the period of the piece (1865) perfectly and we can't wait to get our hands on them and begin choreographing some awesome fight scenes.

A Few Items of Interest

After going through another script revision, some of the script's props have finally been purchased. The two smaller items are a feather pen and a Confederate flag, both of which have always been part of the script. The new (and much more interesting) item is a replica of the gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Lincoln. The Philadelphia Derringer has been written into the script for use by Booth, both during flashbacks and elsewhere. So, enjoy the pretty pictures while we continue to toil away on pre-production!

1890 -- Here We Come!

Good news, everyone! As of this morning, KILL BOOTH has been approved to use The 1890 House as a shooting location! Not much else to say about the matter, so enjoy this exterior shot of what will eventually serve as "Lewis Powell's Estate" and other various locations!

Location Scouting - Gallery 1

Mike, Peter, and I spent our day today location scouting for multiple scenes of the movie. The scenes in particular are the kitchen fight with David Herold, the manor fight with Lewis Powell, the shack fight with Mary Surratt, and the shack dialogue scene between Mary Surratt and George Atzerodt. The following is a gallery of photos taken during the scouting process.

Locations Visited: Pinkerton Shack/Barn (Marathon, NY) and 1890 House (Cortland, NY)

Fruit Chunks

EXCERPT FROM "KILL BOOTH"

INT. KITCHEN - DAWN

The warm light of dawn reflects off a cluttered counter top full of utensils and KITCHENWARE. Near it sits the disheveled, morning-weary figure of DAVID, who quietly munches BREAKFAST from a CEREAL BOWL.

Originally, there was going to be a box of "Lucky Charms" on top of the table as well, but in order to avoid copyright infringement and a potential lawsuit, Mr. AJ Pinkerton was kind enough to whip up a *new* cereal for us. Enjoy!