Suffering Man's Charity
Ghost Writer
americanworldpictures.com/trailer
dates & screening times + trailer
Movie Stills © photographer Siddhartha Abbazi [used with permission for Boreanaz.net] thanks to Sara H.(High qualtiy photos available at the gallery)
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"The
Lookout," SXSW announced seven titles that will screen during the festival
that is slated for March 9 - 17.
http://www.indiewire.com
"Suffering
Man's Charity," directed by Alan Cumming, written by Thomas Gallagher Starring:
Alan Cumming, David Boreanaz, Henry Thomas, Anne Heche.
Alan Cumming's latest
directorial effort features a stellar cast in this darkly funny portrayal of unrequited
love and unfulfilled artistic ambition. (World Premiere)
Suffering Man's Charity
SAG
Low Budget Feature Film
Directed by Alan Cumming
Producer: Sixth Way Productions
~ DJ Paul
Shoot Dates: 12/3
Shoot Location: Los Angeles CA
Story Line:Suffering
Man's Charity is the story of John Vandermark, a frustrated, bitter cellist who
makes his living as a music teacher and who discovers that the aspiring writer
"friend" he's been helping, "Sebastian", has been taking extreme
advantage of him. When John discovers that Sebastian was going to leave him in
the middle of the night, John confronts him and a fight breaks out that goes horribly
wrong, resulting in Sebastian's accidental death. John finds and steals Sebastian's
manuscript and publishes it as his own novel which becomes a best seller. In the
end however, John gets the karmic payback he never expected.
Cast
Alan Cumming .... http://alancumming.com
David Boreanaz as Sebastian
Karen Black ...A
View of the Heart
Herny Thomas http://www.indystar.com/
Screenplay by
Thomas J Gallagher
At the end of 2005 Alan directed
and starred in the independent film Suffering Man's Charity, written by Tom Gallagher
and produced by DJ Paul, Donald Zuckerman and Craig Snider. Alan plays John Vandermark,
a cello teacher trapped in the past, who is obsessed with Sebastian (played by
David Boreanaz), an aspiring writer who John has taken into his home. The film
is at times hilarious, at times tragic, but always hysterical. The cast also includes
Anne Heche, Henry Thomas, Karen Black, Jane Lynch and Carrie Fisher. This is the
first film Alan has directed since The Anniversary Party and the first feature
film he has ever directed alone.
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/
Five years after directing his first feature The Anniversary Party with co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh, actor Alan Cumming (X2) got back behind the camera solo for Suffering Man’s Charity. The wickedly dark comedy is about a cellist (Cumming) who accidentally kills the young writer he’s been helping out and publishes his novel as his own, only to end up haunted by the author’s ghost when the book turns out to be a huge success. David Boreanaz (Angel) plays the writer and Anne Heche, Carrie Fisher and Henry Thomas co-star; the script is screenwriter Thomas Gallagher’s first produced work. “It’s really hard to find scripts that surprise you, and [this one] completely confounded all of my expectations — it’s a crazy collection of genres and moods and constantly takes you to places you aren’t expecting to go,” says Cumming. “I basically tried to augment every aspect, so when it’s scary it’s really scary and when it’s moving it’s almost too much and when it’s funny it’s that awful kind of funny where you really oughtn’t to be laughing.”
Now 41, Cumming calls himself a Renaissance man. In the 20 years since graduating from drama school in his native Scotland, he’s racked up a formidable list of credits onstage — most famously as Cabaret’s Emcee on Broadway but also many times in England as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and onstage at the National Theatre in London — and onscreen. He recorded several albums as half of musical duo Victor and Barry, published a novel, Tommy’s Tale, and served as guest art critic for Britain’s Modern Painters. He’s currently on TV as an L Word recurring character and host of the Sundance Channel film series Midnight Snack. Charity was produced D.J. Paul (Melvin Goes to Dinner), an old friend of Gallagher’s who had been involved with a previous incarnation of the project and has several other screenplays of his under option. “The story owes quite a lot to The Telltale Heart, but its comedic aspects work as a foil for the supernatural element, and Alan’s sensibility turned it into something that’s not like anything else I’ve ever seen,” says Paul. The film was financed with an equity package put together by producers Craig Snider (Feel) and Donald Zuckerman (Hooligans).
The HD Charity shot in L.A. for three weeks in December with Alexander Vendler (Very Mean Men) as cinematographer. “Alan’s character plays the cello, and he didn’t want to cut around that, so he took lessons from a concert musician and he can actually play now,” says Paul. Cumming edited the film in New York with Keith Reamer (Stephanie Daley) this winter while prepping his March return to Broadway in The Threepenny Opera. Scoring Charity is singer-songwriter Michael Penn, whose work as film score composer includes Boogie Nights and The Anniversary Party.
Quiet on the Set
… Lights! Cameras! Krinskys!
When camp moguls
and communal leaders Julian and Tina Krinsky take in a movie, they really take
in a movie - even if it's 3,000 miles away from home. The couple got a behind-the-scenes
look at "Suffering Man's Charity," set for release later this year,
as they spent a day on location out Hollywood way with their friend Craig Snyder,
the film's producer. Discussing the action (from left) are Julian Krinsky; film
co-star David Boreanz (such an angel; he also happens to be the son of 6abc weather
forecaster Dave Roberts); Tina Krinsky; and Snider. Also starring in the movie
is Alan Cumming, whose dastardly character kills Boreanz's destitute novelist
and assumes his identity.
Cumming tells gay magazine ATTITUDE, "(My character) gets jealous when he brings a girl home and we have a huge fight and I wind up tying him up with Christmas lights and saying, 'Who's the faggot now?'
"Then I proceed to go kind of crazy - real MOMMIE DEAREST, TENNESSEE WILLIAMS-on-crystal (meth) kind of thing."
It's an L of a Time for Alan Cumming
by Matt Webb Mitovich
www.tvguide.com extract of article
TVGuide.com: You recently directed a film
called Suffering Man's Charity.
Cumming: Yes, and now I'm editing it while I'm doing the play. It's about this cello teacher, whom I play, who is crazy and has taken in this young waiter who wants to be a novelist. It's this obsessive tale that goes horribly wrong and becomes a sort of psychological horror-slasher kind of film.
TVGuide.com: Ah, so the emphasis is on suffering.
Cumming: There's a lot of suffering, but it's very funny, as well. Great people are in it — Anne Heche, David Boreanaz is the boy, Henry Thomas, Carrie Fisher — so there's lots of laughter, and then it goes very, very, very dark. Just yesterday the editor and I finally got out of that [editing] room after doing the torture sequence, and we were giddy, just laughing away, so happy. I'm really excited about it. [Acting-directing] is pretty daunting, and the actual shoot was so grueling — David's a big boy, so when you're having big fight scenes with him, he wins, even if I win!
Cumming doing double duty on indie
'Charity'
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com
Alan Cumming is starring in and directing "Suffering Man's Charity,"
a dark comedy that also stars David Boreanaz, Anne Heche, Henry Thomas and Carrie
Fisher.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Scottish actor Alan Cumming is starring in and directing "Suffering Man‘s Charity," a low-budget dark comedy that also features David Boreanaz (Fox‘s "Bones").
Boreanaz plays a struggling writer who is accidentally killed by Cumming one evening. Cumming discovers the writer‘s novel and ends up taking credit for penning it. When it becomes a success, the writer comes back to haunt him.
Anne Heche portrays the book‘s publisher, and Carrie Fisher a reporter. Also in the cast are Henry Thomas , Karen Black and Jane Lynch ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin").
Cumming said he has his hands full portraying "the craziest person I‘ve ever played" and directing at the same time. "I‘m playing this hysterical person, I‘m weeping and screaming and fighting and crying, and then I‘m going ‘Cut! How was that? Do we need to go again?"‘
After
wrapping the movie, Cumming will to go New York where he will star in "Three
Penny Opera" on Broadway this winter while cutting the film. His other feature
credits include the "Spy Kids" franchise and "Nicholas Nickleby."
extract of interview with A. Cumming
http://ec.gayalliance.org/articles/001100.shtml
JY: Cool! What project are you really excited about that is coming up?
AC: I am really excited about this movie called Suffering Man’s Charges. Did I take my allergy pill? OK I did. Oh, this is the film I am going to be in and direct. We’re still waiting to see if we have the money. More than likely later this year.
It’s really so great. It’s about this music teacher who takes in this waiter who is a struggling novelist just to help him out, but he is obviously infatuated by him. At one point they have this big fight and he accidentally kills him.
JY: What is your character Alan?
AC: I play the music teacher…and he is ccccrrrrraaaaazzzzzyyyyy! It is sort of like in this big fight the novelist/waiter calls him a faggot and they tussle and my character ties him to a chair with fairy lights, you know christmas lights, and his mouth is taped, and I say “so who’s the faggot now?”.
JY: Nice scene!
AC: So I torture him and such. He is a totally insane person. It’s kinda like a mommie dearest deal.
JY: Hollywood loves those kind of movies.
AC: I don’t know if they are gonna love this one quite so much. (laughs)
JY: Have you directed before?
Alan Cumming Is into Suffering
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/index.html
James Brown may have to move over—it might very well be Alan Cumming who’s the hardest-working man in show business. He’s on stage, he’s in films, he’s at the fragrance counter, he pops up on The L Word. And now he’s directing his first feature film since 2001’s The Anniversary Party. The film in question, a black comedy called Suffering Man’s Charity, stars Cumming as an eccentric music teacher who takes in a younger writer he’s physically attracted to ( Angel’s David Boreanaz ) in order to “help” him. Boreanaz’s character begins dating a woman, jealousy rears its head, and a fight with Cumming causes his accidental death. What happens next is a supernatural romp into literary plagiarism, vengeful spirits, and gay desire for a really hot ghost. In post-production now and co-starring Jane Lynch, Karen Black, Carrie Fisher, Anne Heche, and Henry Thomas, Suffering haunts screens sometime later this year or next.