Maderfilm Welcomes Andi Wagner to the Cast of ECHOES

Maderfilm welcomes Andi Wagner to the cast of ECHOES as Abby’s caring aunt Dara. Andi has appeared in over 25 commercials over the last three years, as well as several television pilots, comedy webisodes, and independent films.

Andi Wagner was a Co-Host, alongside Chris Hardwick, on the pop culture trivia game show “Trashed” on MTV, as well as a Host/Writer of “Healthy Living” on FiT TV and hosted a “Friday Night” on NBC. She then moved behind the camera and for over 15 years worked in casting and segment producing on popular dating and game shows, as well as writing and producing segments on the syndicated talk show “Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus” with Cybill Shepherd.

But that was a different chapter of her life…

Now, in her words, she’s a crazed, multi-tasking actress, comedienne, and indefatigable mother of an energetic 13-year-old boy, who is rediscovering and redefining her purpose in mid-life by performing stand-up at local comedy clubs. A firecracker mother with no filter, she enjoys finding the humor in parenting and marriage, one joke at a time. Andi has performed at The Comedy Store, The Ice House, Flappers, Westside Comedy Theater, HA HA’s, The Warehouse and in numerous hole-in-the-walls across Los Angeles.

We recently worked with Andi on a reality show pilot and are excited to dive in with her on a narrative role.

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Maderfilm Enlists Longtime Collaborator Lou Richards as Dr. Lichte in ECHOES

Another familiar face joins the ECHOES cast. Maderfilm has enlisted longtime collaborator Lou Richards to play Dr. Lichte in our newest film ECHOES. You may also recognize Lou as Cassie’s father Charles Sinclair in our award-winning feature DISPLACEMENT, or as Jared Cain in our TV Pilot A.L.L.I.A.N.C.E.

As a student at Texas Tech University, Lou got involved in college radio at KTXT. His first commercial job was doing the all night shift at KLBK in Lubbock, Texas. He went on to be a DJ at KKUA in Honolulu and landed a few small roles in “Hawaii Five-0”. That’s when the acting bug took over and he moved to Los Angeles to “pursue the dream”.

Of all his television roles, he claims his favorite was working on “Gloria”, the sitcom spin-off of “All in the Family”. Says Lou, “I was being paid to show up everyday and be silly. It doesn’t get much better than that”. From his cartoon voice work he says he enjoyed working most of all with Frank Welker.

We love Lou and are always intrigued by the interesting choices he makes as an actor. We can’t wait to see what he does with Dr. Lichte.

Maderfilm Welcomes Back Actor Andrea Lee Davis for ECHOES

Maderfilm welcomes back actor Andrea Lee Davis to play Abby’s Stepmother, Marie, in our latest project ECHOES. Having worked with Andrea on the short film “Intrusion”, as well as other projects including a short piece with young ECHOES actor Cameron Crates a few years back, Director Kenneth Mader knew she would be perfect for the role, one that she’ll really be able to sink her teeth into and have some fun with.

Andrea has appeared in numerous films, her most recent being “A Doggone Hollywood” alongside another longtime friend of Maderfilm’s, Paul Logan, most notable for his film “The Horde”, and various other action features.

Andrea worked with Cuba Gooding Jr. on “What Love Is”,  and Marlee Matlin in the indie award winner “No Ordinary Hero: The Superdeafy Movie”. Also a talented musician and singer, Andrea had a recurring role as the Italian pianist on “The Bold and The Beautiful”, as well as appearing with her vocal trio, The Swing Dolls, on the popular “Gilmore Girls” episode, “We’ve Got Magic to Do”. She wrote the lyrics and vocal arrangement for the Italian song, “La Vita Italiana fa per me (The Italian Life’s For Me)”, in the Fiat 500L commercial, “Wedding”, as well as singing on the recording with her vocal trio. Recently Andrea has been studying at the Second City Conservatory in Hollywood.

We are very excited to be working with Andrea again and look forward to seeing her bring the character of Marie to life.

Meet Echoes’ Stars Cameron and Campbell Crates

Cameron and Campbell Crates

Maderfilm is excited to announce that we are back in production mode. The filming dates are scheduled, location has been locked, and Cameron and Campbell Crates will be starring in our next short film, ECHOES.

The sisters have worked with Maderfilm before in our most recent feature film Displacement and writer-director Kenneth Mader is happy to be working with them again and in a larger capacity.

Stay tuned for more updates on ECHOES.

 

Displacement & Passing Darkness Now Available in the UK!

Maderfilm has landed across the pond with both Displacement and our short film Passing Darkness streaming on Amazon Prime!

Displacement stars the UK’s very own Sarah Douglas (Ursa from the original Superman movies, and most recently Mrs. Averill in A Christmas Prince), along with The Bold and the Beautiful’s Courtney Hope, Academy Award Nominee and Golden Globe Winner Bruce Davison, Golden Globe Winner Susan Blakely, and Christopher Backus (Bosch).

Check out this cool new international poster that just launched the film online in the UK –>

To watch the movie click here:

(Coming to Germany and Japan in early 2018!)

Haven’t seen Displacement in the U.S. yet?
You can watch it here:

Or visit our website for more options.

Our award-winning short film Passing Darkness is also streaming on Amazon in the UK as well as here in the U.S. If you haven’t seen it yet now’s your chance!

Passing Darkness is about a skilled martial artist who must protect her young daughter from dark forces that threaten not just their lives, but her sanity… and learn a shocking truth on her way to redemption.

This film was instrumental in director Kenneth Mader’s journey toward making Displacement and set the bar in terms of production value. Check out the new trailer:

 

MADERFILM’S ‘DEEP FOCUS’ IS NEXT FEATURE; McDOWELL, DAVISON ATTACHED

Hot on the heels of the North American Theatrical and VOD release of its multi-award-winning sci-fi thriller Displacement, Maderfilm Productions has announced that Deep Focus will be the next feature film on its slate to go into production in 2018, with the recent attachment of legendary actor Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) and returning Displacement star Bruce Davison (X-Men).

A sophisticated dystopian supernatural thriller and cautionary tale that explores the dangers of deforestation and emerging diseases, Deep Focus follows the story of a Pulitzer Prize winning photo journalist who begins seeing images of death in her lens, which she believes may be precognitive visions of a coming biological holocaust… the same disease that killed her young daughter. Or did it?  Kenneth Mader will once again helm from his original script that won Best Screenplay honors at the AOF Written Word Awards. McDowell is attached to play enigmatic scientist Dr. Reichfeltz, with Davison to portray the role of an Anglican Priest, Father Oren.

Mader was recently named one of the “Top 100 Indie Filmmakers in the World” in the book by Action On Film’s Del Weston. Displacement took home Best Science Fiction Film honors at both the Downtown L.A. Film Festival and the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival, along with a Best Supporting Actor Award for Bruce Davison, a Chrononaut Award for Outstanding Time Travel Film in the Boston Science Fiction Festival, and was an Official Selection in the Phoenix Film Festival and USA Film Festival. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release this past summer day and date with VOD, is also available on DVD, was acquired by A+E Networks for a World Broadcast Premiere on Lifetime, curated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their Margaret Herrick Library, and is being hailed by critics as “A clever masterpeice” and “A Brilliant Mind-Bender That Will Keep You Guessing”.

Packaging and financing for Deep Focus is currently underway, with other prominent talent, sales agents and distributors circling. More news coming soon as the project moves forward.

Interview with Kenneth Mader on the making of DISPLACEMENT

Danny Templegod from Dan’s Movie Report just interviewed Kenneth Mader on the making of DISPLACEMENT—trials, successes, stars, and more! Check out the interview below:

Greetings valued readers of Dan’s Movie Report, today we have an epic interview from the creative mind of Kenneth Mader. Mr. Mader chats in depth about Displacement, detailing the trials and triumphs of his lengthy odyssey to complete his opus to his mom. Displacement brings to light a unique creativity as rare as lunar rock, yet as accessible as a new day over the ocean. Displacement was my top pick for the 2016 year. Mader exudes talent, class, and a work ethic, that will no doubt see his status rise over the coming years. Grab a seat, sit back, relax, adjust your watch, bend time and get displaced! Kenneth Mader shall infuse wisdom and quantum theory in your brain, and a textual lashing of inverted reality, coupled with a deep knowledge of the inner workings of independent film making… 3-2-1- GO!

DMR: How long after your mom passed did you write the script for Displacement, or was it started while she was alive?

KM: I had begun noodling with notions for the script while she was alive, but it didn’t really coalesce until she passed and I decided to incorporate what happened when she got sick, which was her desire to see the ocean one last time. Unfortunately she had cancer and it progressed so quickly that my Dad and I weren’t able to fulfill that wish, so that became essentially the heart of the story, and the issue my lead character is dealing with that drives the entire narrative. It still took about three years after that of on-and-off writing to finish the script — especially after I complicated things for myself making it a looping time travel story! Then in early 2013 I jumped off the cliff to start production.

DMR: Chat about some of the limitations of filming over a few years and having only at times some weekends to shoot around scheduling of performers and crew?

KM: Yeah shooting a film piecemeal over the course of two-plus years is extremely challenging on a number of levels, not the least of which is continuity. Little things like: imagine having to keep you hair exactly the same over that extended period of time… and you have Courtney’s hair! (she was great and had an excellent stylist who was able to match it shoot-to-shoot). There was also the fear of losing Courtney to a big movie or tv show. We actually had a couple of scares like that along the way, but thankfully everything worked out. (She didn’t land on The Bold and The Beautiful until just before our release.)

Conversely there were also some benefits to the extended shooting schedule, mainly the ability to shape and improve the film as we went along. Something we captured in one scene would instruct and change things in scenes we had yet to shoot. For example, Courtney’s level of intensity entering the hotel room after experiencing the timeslip on the beach inspired a complete rewrite of that timeslip sequence, which hadn’t been shot yet. In fact in the original script it was a completely different and smaller scene that took place at the hotel vending machines. But her performance felt like we needed a stronger motivation than what was written, and I also wanted to expand the scope a bit and show what was happening in the world around her. So in this case taking so much time to get the film in the can worked to our benefit, and I believe the benefit of the movie.

Continued…

To learn more about shoot challenges, casting, future projects, and the people Ken would love to work with read the rest of the article here.