Currently in Development

The Follower , Lionsgate / HBO

Cold Caller, Smoking Gun Productions

Twisted City, Talking Wall Pictures

Bust , Alexandra Brodsky and John Benton

October Squall (original screenplay), Fox Searchlight

(For information regarding film rights to Jason's work, please contact rights@jasonstarr.com )


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  (May, 2008)

The Bully, based on the short story by Jason Starr, is being made into a short film by Australian production company, Smoking Gun Productions. Adapted by director, Shane McNeil, and to be produced by Kristian Moliere (Boxing Day) The Bully is a suburban noir about an overweight 14 year-old boy who is the victim of schoolyard bullying. When he turns to his father for advice, things go from bad to worse...

"What initially attracted us to The Bully was that it had a lean, spare narrative, was tightly plotted with moments of real suspense and shock and that it centred upon a complex and complicated protagonist--all of which I felt would form a strong foundation for cinematic adaptation, " said Shane McNeil.

The Bully was recently selected for production funding by the South Australian Film Corporation under their Short Film Production initiative. The film will be shot in late 2008 for release in early 2009.  Rising Sun Pictures (who have done VFX for Harry Potter, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Lord of the Rings, etc) have co-partnered with Smoking Gun Productions on post production.

Smoking Gun Productions have also optioned Jason Starr's first novel, Cold Caller, which Jason is currently adapting. Kristian said, "We are very excited to be continuing our collaboration with Jason and look forward to taking our first step into production with The Bully."

The Bully by Jason Starr (an Amazon Short) is available for download for just 49 cents on Amazon.com

Smoking Gun Productions secures film rights to award-winning cult novel

Cold Caller is a 'white-collar noir' about a downwardly mobile telemarketer desperately clinging to the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. Trapped in a dead-end job, surrounded by bosses he hates, former ad man, Bill Moss is going nowhere fast. As his life starts to spiral madly out of control, his desperation for job advancement makes him turn to unspeakable acts of violence when a dark secret from the past threatens to put the final bullet in his career.

Jason Starr has written six celebrated crime novels and has twice won the prestigious Anthony Award, bestowed every Summer at the Boucheron World Mystery Convention in Chicago. Brett Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, is one of Jason’s biggest fans calling him 'the first writer of his generation to convincingly update the modern crime novel'

Producer, Kristian Moliere, and writer/director Shane McNeil had tried for several years to obtain the film rights to Starr's novel which were previously owned by the producer of Fight Club, Ross Grayson Bell. Jason will also be writing the screenplay for the film in New York and Adelaide, having recently finished writing the film October Squall for Oscar-winning actress, Halle Berry, to star in and produce.

The production received project development funding from the South Australian Film Corporation in September 2005.

About the Book

In the tradition of celebrated crime writers such as Jim Thompson and Patricia Highsmith, Cold Caller updates the film noir to the modern corporate world, putting grime around its tightening white collar. Suspenseful and bleakly comic, Cold Caller is a twisty tale of dark deeds set deep inside a mind on the verge of disintegration as Bill Moss plunges ever deeper into a hell of his own creation.

Cold Caller is published by No Exit Press, and is to be reprinted this month as one of their 18 best books to celebrate their 18th birthday. The novel has been published in the United States and the United Kingdom and foreign editions are available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and Poland (forthcoming).

About Smoking Gun Productions

Smoking Gun Productions Pty Ltd was formed in Adelaide in 2001, by writer/director Shane McNeil and producer Kristian Moliere.

Smoking Gun’s first project was a series of music videos for the band, The Mark of Cain ([R]etaliate, Familiar Territory and Lockdown) as well as producing an international EPK documentary. These productions have been screened on national television programs, such as ABC’s Rage and Channel V on Foxtel. The music videos have also met with considerable acclaim within the Australian music and film industry, being named in Rage’s Best Music Videos of 2001 and winning two Golds at the Australian Cinematographers Society Awards. BMG, the band’s record company, was so impressed with the quality of the videos that they released [R]etaliate commercially as their first sell thro’ video single.

In 2003, Smoking Gun produced the Kafkaesque thriller, The 13th House, which was the only South Australian short feature film to have received full production investment from the Australian Film Commission. The film starred dual Logie winner, Shaun Micallef (Micallef Tonight, The Micallef Program), Damon Gameau (The Tracker, Thunderstruck) and Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby).

The 13th House had its world premiere at the Adelaide International Film Festival in March 2003. The film’s screening was a sell-out and its popularity at the Festival ensured a second screening in the Best of the Festival, as well as being voted by audiences as one of the Top 10 films of the Festival. The film was also selected in competition at the 36th Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia in Spain and the 22nd Brussels International Festival of Fantasy, Thriller and Sci-Fi Films. In Australia, it was screened as part of the 50 Minutes From Home national touring program and at the 2003 Sydney Film Festival.

Respected international film critic, David Stratton, reviewed the film favourably for Hollywood trade magazine, Variety, saying it 'shows the potential talent of director, Shane McNeil... This mixture of Kafka and The Twilight Zone is a tasty yarn.'

In 2004, Smoking Gun received production funding for the development of Kafkamêsto -- an online game based on the life and works of Czech writer Franz Kafka -- produced under the ABC/SAFC GameOn initiative (to go online in November 2005), as well as draft feature funding from the SAFC for the psychological thriller, The Last Day (written by Shane McNeil). Kristian was also one of three emerging Australian producers to be selected to participate in the 2005 Rotterdam Producers Lab. They are currently financing their first feature film, Servo, a hip-hop comedy to be shot in Adelaide, with Mario Andreacchio (Napoleon, The Real Macaw, Paradise Found) on board as Executive Producer.

Most recently, Smoking Gun Productions has completed shooting the pilot for a proposed true crime television series, SA PoliceFile, a joint initiative of Channel 7 Adelaide, the SA Police and BankSA CrimeStoppers. SA PoliceFile is scheduled to screen on Channel 7 later this year.

Berry Hears "Squall" Call

By Michael Fleming NEW YORK (Variety) - In a film more like "Monster's Ball" than her upcoming James Bond picture "Die Another Day," Halle Berry (news) will play a rape victim in "October Squall," a drama that will shoot next year.

Berry's character keeps her rapist's baby and becomes a loving mother. When he reaches puberty, she begins to suspect the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.

The film is based on a true story. Novelist Jason Starr ("Tough Luck") wrote the script under the supervision of Berry and director Lyndon Chubbuck ("The War Bride"). Berry will also serve as a producer.

Chubbuck said Berry approached him after seeing "The War Bride," which like "Monster's Ball" depicts a woman struggling to rise above her circumstance. (Berry won an Academy Award this year for her role in "Monster's Ball.") "She called to say she wanted to do a movie with me, and I pitched this one, which happened in an area I came from, near Baltimore," Chubbuck said.

Financing of the film is still being arranged, he said.

"With all the equity money that has been offered to us because of Halle, I'm 100% confident I'll be shooting this next year," he said, though he added that the picture might align with a studio.

Berry is next expected to star in the long-in-development Luis Mandoki-directed "Need" at MGM, with "Die Another Day" director Lee Tamahori's Paramount film "The Guide" also on her dance card. Chubbuck's "War Bride" premieres in London Nov. 25. It stars Anna Friel (news), Brenda Fricker, Molly Parker (news) and Loren Dean (news). Reuters/Variety