Pre-Pre-Production

Feature Film

WOMAN INSIDE is an American Casablanca – one of the greatest love stories of our time; two soulmates who lose themselves within the halls of power as their lives become distorted by fame, romance, fear, politics, corruption, and war during some of America’s darkest hours. Upon arriving in Washington as part of the Nixon administration, John, a man who exudes intensity and raw power, and Martha, an unknown southern housewife who in three years achieves a Harris Poll following third only to Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy and John Wayne; their previously unshakeable love affair quickly becomes a love triangle when Power, the greatest seducer, becomes John’s mistress. Their perfect marriage overshadowed by the hijinks and euphoria of fame is strained and then shattered as the fissures in a fragile America turn to huge cracks during the Vietnam War – when there’s "a Dance with the Devil, the Devil plays the tune"- Watergate, a spider in the President’s bed, (not what we were led to believe it was!) annihilates the administration. The Senate Watergate Committee stated that: "Never have so many tried to get away with so much and unless they are held accountable next time there may not be a Watchman in the Night!" Throughout those dark days, Martha Mitchell, this Cassandra, was the one woman inside the highest circles of power who screamed the truth so loudly that nothing – not her friends, her husband, the FBI, or even the President of the United States – could silence her. Richard Nixon laments in the David Frost Interviews Martha’s key role in Watergate. If you listen closely, you can still hear the echoes of Martha’s truth today. This film will make you laugh, cry, think and feel – It is a story whose time has come.

SCREENPLAY by C.S. ALSOP and DIANE LADD BASED ON: the 'First Lady Reporter of the White House Helen Thomas’s' Dateline USA, and Martha by Winzola McClendon. Martin Scorsese, echoed by Emma Koskoff, his producer, has said, “Woman Inside is one of the best scripts I’ve read in ten years.” Noteworthy beyond Martin Scorsese (Executive Producer) and David O. Russell (Producer) is Diane Ladd as director and actor. Her numerous directing awards for her film Mrs. Munck position her well for directing Woman Inside. Her three Academy Award nominations, her British Academy Award, and her 57 international acting awards (Time Magazine’s Diane Ladd is one of the 10 top actresses not only in this country, but in the whole world!) bode well for her portrayal of Martha Mitchell.

Many Oscar® nominees and winners are slated for the film already with solid commitments from such stars as Laura Dern and Bruce Dern to potential cast members like Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson. Stars who are familiar with Woman Inside have literally said, “Call me and if I’m available, I’ll play any role you want!” Those include Martin Sheen, Johnny Depp, Mark Ruffalo, Ed Asner, Frances Fisher, Olympia Dukakis, Scott Wilson, Lainie Kazan, Ed Begley Jr., Michael Nouri, Bruce Davidson and Elliot Gould among others. Diane’s ability to consistently attract stellar talent will see to the assembly of a great cast especially in the key roles of John Mitchell, Helen Thomas, Bebe Rebozo, and Richard Nixon.

Pre-Pre-Production

Feature Film

HOT WATER BISCUITS is based on one of the Texas Trilogy Broadway plays by Texas playwright, Preston Jones, who was chosen to be honored by his own fellow playwrights; Dramatist Guild Members in a huge party given for him at the famous Sardi’s. The original Broadway play in which Diane starred, Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, received incredible rave reviews and serves as the basis for this film.

Classmates and friends venture forth from this small Gulf Coast town, in search of their own dreams and achieve success: Lu Ann, a Pollyanna girl, is trapped by her own naiveté. Despite usual pleasures, startling tragedies, and the doubts she encounters, Lu Ann is forced by life’s lessons to evolve beyond her Desert-Storm hero brother. And, certainly more than her first husband, the gorgeous blow-hard who drinks too much, lies too often, and philanders too openly! And, more than the high school green-haired, basketball-playing, beau who returns as a successful preacher and learns some lessons from her! The characters in our story of “good and evil” are a combination of Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder, mischievously touching your heart and refusing to let go. A heart-rending drama with the perfect mix of comedy unfolds as a beautiful, deeply moving realization of life.

STARRING: LAURA DERN

SCREENWRITERS: Dramatist Members and WGA members: DIANE LADD and WILLIAM JACK SIBLEY, novelist, and guest playwright in residence at Tennessee Williams’ Playwright Festival in Key West, Florida

This film has all the major components of such blockbusters as When Harry Met Sally, Fried Green Tomatoes, Hope Floats, Bridget Jones Diary, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Sweet Home Alabama.

Pre-Pre-Production

Feature Film

RELATIVE TRUTH is the personal journey of CARLEY DEAN. Adopted at birth, an African-American woman searches for her 'real' mother only to learn a heart-wrenching truth about the real meaning of family in the process.

A successful advertising executive and happily married African-American woman is suddenly haunted by an overwhelming desire to know her true birth mother -- a woman who’s identity has been lost to her since her adoption. When all attempts to find the woman lead to failure, she sadly resigns herself to that fact. One afternoon an impoverished, white “country” woman and her half black, healer and song-writing son show up claiming to be her mother and twin brother. Are these people really who they say they are or is there some hidden motive behind their mysterious appearance? A haunting, compelling, and at times, darkly humorous film about race, loss, love and the myriad of definitions for the word - family.

A contemporary, low budget, independent feature – very much in the style and spirit of such award winning films as Manchester by the Sea, Lucky (starring Harry Dean Stanton) and The Meyerowitz Stories (starring Dustin Hoffmann).

*A very talented musician/singer is slated for the role of JULIAN HANER, a pivotal role in both the film and publicity plans. This is especially appealing to attract youth and young adult audiences both in the U.S. and around the globe.

BELLINA LOGAN will star as CARLEY DEAN, the orphan-now-woman seeking her birth mother. Credits include several hit films along with the lead as Juliet in Joseph Papp’s N.Y. Shakespeare in the Park. A regular on the TV series ER and HBO’s Enlightened. Recently guest starred: Sons of Anarchy, an FX miniseries, Midnight Texas, Famous in Love, and her own one-woman show, Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child, garnering her rave reviews.

CHARLIE ROBINSON starred with Diane Ladd in Driving Miss Daisy and has won numerous awards including the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the Image Award for Outstanding Actor. Co-starred and appeared in many leading TV Shows and Films and will co-star in the lead role of SAM TAYLOR.

DIANE LADD will co-star as the mother, EVELYN HANER.

WILLIAM JACK SIBLEY (Award-winning novelist and playwright) – Screenwriter

DEMIAN LICHTENSTEIN (Director - 3000 Miles from Graceland and internationally acclaimed The Gift) – Cinematographer

Pre-Pre-Production

Feature Film

Film script by novelist and playwright, Bruce Burnett.

MASTER OF BROOKLYN is about a young girl drawing her comic book hero, The Master, to cope with her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. She meets a reclusive neighbor - an Olympic taekwondo champion and North Korean defector - and they strike up a reluctant friendship as he teaches her to fight and she becomes the daughter he lost.

SHAUNA REED is a ten-year-old blonde haired fifth grader whose mother, CONNIE REED, moved them from Lubbock, Texas to Brooklyn on a Greyhound Bus. Isolated and alone with a struggling mother holding three jobs, Shauna lives in a fantasy world drawing a comic called the Master to cope with her challenging life. She discovers an elderly neighbor is her hero incarnate, a former Olympic Taekwondo Champion and defector from North Korea. While teaching her to defend herself in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, the story and the comic merge in this inspirational tale of true friendship and family.

CAST: Talented, nine-year-old CHANNAH ZEITUNG, four time Taekwondo World Champion, will portray the role of SHAUNA.

In Development

Feature Film

HIGH MAINTENANCE is the best description for GEORGE EDINCOTT “COTTY” WORTHINGTON. He is in his early forties, a Hugh Grant type, is George Worthington III and Helen (Pooty’s) only son amidst their three daughters; Eugenie, Cosima, and Beatrice, and heir to the grand "Morelgate" seaside estate and empire. COTTY is an extremely successful Wall Street broker, however he is very depressed at the yearly Christmas gathering. His fickle and unfaithful “partner” has abandoned him! His family, in an effort to cheer him up, insist he take a vacation and use the “winter home” in Jamaica.

Unbeknownst to his family, their son who is happily satisfied with his lifestyle, is indeed, gay! Unaware, in a further effort to cheer him up, they contact their cousin, Mo, a theatrical New York agent, to hire an actress to travel to Jamaica to accidentally befriend their son and cheer him up so he’s not alone! No hanky-panky expected. All for $35,000 - a brand new fabulous wardrobe and all expenses paid for one week! But the only actress available is an African American comedienne - a Whoopi Goldberg or Queen Latifah type - SHIRLEY, who doesn’t want the job, but can't pass up the money and the perks! What ensues is a hilarious unlikely relationship with many unexpected turns and surprises!

SCREENPLAY BY Dramatist Guild and WGA Members: DIANE LADD and WILLIAM JACK SIBLEY

In Development

Feature Film

A SOLDIER'S PROMISE is the true story of ALVIN SHIPMAN, a young Henry Fonda look-a-like who could strike that match hanging on the clothesline by a clothespin a hundred feet away with his 22 rifle.

This is the story of a young soldier from the small Eastern Texas town of Vernon, and his path in WWII accidentally discovering the first Concentration Camp that would be freed by the Americans! He saw first-hand the horror of cruelty and brutality inflicted by the Nazis in the detailed deathbed written confessions of a German Commander, entrusted to him. This “War Relic” hidden for thirty years in an attic, for fear of reprisal, is now in a museum. Based on the novel by Shipman’s daughter, Shirley Shipman Johnson and Houston R. Davis. Ms. Johnson is responsible for the first Commemorative Holocaust Museum in the South.

NOTE: This film is in Development – Exxcell Entertainment has filmed interviews with the Veterans of the “Recon Patrol”; capturing their amazing stories. These will be interspersed throughout the film.