Middle-Tennessee-based screenwriter Jonathan Richard Cring will be premiering his new movie, "The Drive," on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Palace Theater in Gallatin.
The film is the seventh in a series of twelve feature-length films in twelve months produced and premiered in the Tennessee area. The endeavor, called the Extra/Ordinary Film Project, is spearheaded by Russ and Tracy Cring of Hendersonville.
The Crings founded F-3 Films four years ago and this isn't the first time they've shot in Bedford County. F-3 filmed in Wartrace in March of 2006, when they shot a music video for the band Southern Pride for their song "Shopping Cart Sally," and the success with that shoot bought them back to Bedford County.
"It's the people, the openness that we love. The mayor has really opened the door for us in Wartrace," the director Russ Cring said in August. "The music video came out great and Wartrace has a great look to it."
"The Drive" is a look at the effects of war seen through the life of Jack and Clara Sorrento, parents who proudly sent their son, Bradley, off to war but then, sadly, received him home as a hero-but a casualty of the conflict.
"While politicians debate war, families have to deal with the responsibility and the after-effects of the devastation," said the screenwriter Cring. "It has always been the nature of the beast that even though sometimes necessary, war makes no friends, creates no alliances and generates no life."
F-3 shoot their films digitally and they have recently upgraded to high definition, Cring said, "so we can run and gun ... shoot everything very fast so we can do 12 films in 12 months." For the editing, they just use a personal computer with Adobe Premiere Pro. Budgets for the film have been less than $5,000.
The films that F-3 have made have been covering topics such as prejudice, intergenerational conflicts, sexual bias, and the true purpose of religious expression, all with a little bit of humor thrown in.
The Drive has also been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival, begun by actor and producer Robert Redford. It stars D.R. Smith of Clarksville, Tennessee and Tammy Hopkins of Brevard, North Carolina and covers locations from White House, Wartrace and Clarksville, Tennessee to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Marion and Mt. Vernon, Illinois and culminates with a dramatic and explosive conclusion at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
"'The Drive' is not an anti-war movie, because certainly no sane person is for war. It is a family- oriented story of the toll taken on the human spirit when it becomes the tragic event that fathers bury their sons instead of sons burying their fathers," cites Jonathan.
"The Drive" is rated PG-13 for some mild violence and adult content and is not suitable for very small children. For more information, call (615) 715-1578.
