LaMonte Edwards is the writer/director of the new film “King of Paper Chasin’”. The film is currently airing on The Movie Channel and is available to purchase in stores and rent on Redbox and Netflix. Movie Mikes had a chance to chat with LaMonte about the movie and he has planned next.
Mike Gencarelli: Can you tell us about your new film “King of Paper Chasin’”?
LaMonte Edwards: “King of Paper Chasin’” is about a character named Carter Blanche, who is like an American nightmare. He is the guy who will do pretty much whatever he needs to do to make money, in the vein of Tony Soprano. He takes advantage of all different aspects of capitalism, some legal and some illegal, to make money. He is the lead character and that is basically the core of the story.
MG: What inspired the idea for the film?
LE: Actually I did the film with a gentlemen by the name of Dwayne “D.L.” Clark, who actually had the idea based on some of his own life experiences. He called me up one day and said he had this idea for a movie. He wanted to take a look at the script and make it more of an entertaining vehicle. We sat down and he had some great ideas and I just ran with it.
MG: Can you describe the experience of working on your first full length film?
LE: It was very interesting. I was able to surround myself with good talent and natured people. The movie has some pretty dark subject matter. The beauty of that is your able to balance it with some really great people on set. We had to shoot it relatively fast because we had a very limited budget. We shot it in 28 days and maybe in that time we took 4 days off. It was brutal. He had a lot of locations and characters also. The good things is my cameraman and I have been friends since pre-school. We created like a family-aspect on the set which made it easier to do a film like that in such a short period of time.
MG: In your opinion what was harder: writing , producing or directing?
LE: I would say that producing is the hardest. The thing with producing, especially independent films, is you are really trying to make impossible things happen. You are dealing with all the talent and trying to get them to perform on your schedule. So that is definitely the toughest part.
MG: Can you tell us when and where people can see the film?
LE: The movie is currently on DVD. It is in Walmart in stores and it is also online. It is currently also in Redbox as of May 31st. It is going to screen on The Movie Channel (TMC) July 1st at 8pm, which is a Friday. There will be subsequent screenings all through the month on TMC and Showtime after that.
MG: Can you tell us about any other upcoming projects?
LE: I am working on my next project titled “Melvin the Magnificent”. It is a fantasy drama. It is currently shopping right now. We trying to get a cast involved. So that is next and we are actively doing it right now.