SYNOPSIS
A statue with miraculous weight-loss powers arrives unexpectedly in a poor parish church. Local women discover if you light a candle, you lose a pound. Judy, the overweight daughter of the weight-loss queen Minnie Barr, discovers with delight the statue’s powers. The pounds shed off her. As word of this miracle spreads, women arrive from all over the world. Money pours into the church. The statue is an international sensation. The press goes crazy. But Minnie’s empire and the rest of the weight-loss industry go into free-fall as women abandon weight-loss and exercise clubs. Church and industry leaders conspire to remove the statue. An epic cat and mouse struggle ensues between the forces that want to protect St. Roz and those who are threatened by her.
TECH SPECS: 78 mins, HD
GENRE: Comedy
LAMPORT-SHEPPARD ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS A FILM BY GREGORY SHEPPARD
RACHEL WILSON, VICTORIA SNOW, “ST. ROZ”, MICHAEL LAMPORT, JONATHAN HIGGINS, MICHELLE NOLDEN,
SARAH ALLEN, TIM ROZON, JANE EASTWOOD, DAVID FOX
CASTING BY STEPHANIE GORIN, CSA, CDC | COSTUME DESIGNER LAURA MONTGOMERY
PRODUCTION DESIGNER KATHLEEN CLIMIE | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMES GARDNER
MUSIC BY RICHARD EVANS | EDITOR MARLO MIAZGA, BRENT MCCREADY
PRODUCED BY GREGORY SHEPPARD, MICHAEL LAMPORT, MARYANN KOVALSKI
WRITTEN BY MARYANN KOVALSKI | DIRECTED BY GREGORY SHEPPARD
COPYRIGHT ©2010 LAMPORT-SHEPPARD ENTERTAINMENT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Maryann Kovalski’s screenplay is a quirky, funny and very unusual story. It poked gentle fun at the church, the worlds obsession with weight loss and the human need for quick fix. The premise-miracle weight loss by praying to a statue!
It was an overly ambitious script with a large cast and many locations. Some days we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew.
Fighting lack of money, too little time and too many locations we nonetheless got it made.
Nervously we submitted it to the film festivals. What a relief and joy it was to get some recognition, and most importantly lots of laughter from the audiences. Hope you enjoy it and have a few laughs too.
This wonderful script was sitting around (as wonderful scripts so often do) our offices as we continued to produce television shows for twenty-eight countries around the world.
After threatening ourselves and others that we would break out into the theatrical movie universe, we decided to take this wonderful script and do just that! It was an amazing adventure, full of the usual ups and downs, but we finally put the script on the screen. We hope you enjoy this light-hearted comedy about weight-loss!
Gregory Sheppard is co-owner of Lamport-Sheppard Entertainment and is the producer and director of Rescue Mediums (7 seasons, airing around the world including Canada, USA and UK). He recently produced and directed the theatrical comedy St. Roz which has garnered the GOLD REMY for Best New Comedy at the Houston Worldfest Film Festival, BEST IN FEST at the Palm Bach Film Festival, and Opening Night film for TVIFF festival in California. Gregory has won silver and bronze lions in Cannes, Gold Hugo and in festivals throughout the US and Canada for his producing and directorial skills on television and commercials.
He has also produced and directed In Your Wildest Dreams (a pilot for Discovery USA), executive-produced Curious and Unusual Deaths which airs on Discovery Canada and C&I Network in the UK (Season Two of Curious and Unusual Deaths is in production) and directed and produced Suite & Simple, a travel show for CTV and Fine Living. He also executive-produced Real Renos, a critically-acclaimed television series on HGTV. He directed and produced a one-hour TV pilot The Collectors on the world of classic cars. He has executive-produced several other specials and documentaries. In addition to the three hundred plus commercials he has directed for The Partners Film Company, he produced and directed the award-winning short film Paris Crew and the period piece The Privateer. He also directed over 20 of the critically acclaimed Heritage Minutes for television.
Michael Lamport is Executive Producer and partner in LAMPORT-SHEPPARD ENTERTAINMENT LTD. He produces the Internationally-acclaimed television series Rescue Mediums, seen in 28 countries around the world, as well as In Your Wildest Dreams, a dream analysis series in Canada and the USA. Most recently he has produced Curious and Unusual Deaths for Discovery Canada and the History Channel in the UK. In addition to his producing, he is the voice of the kids and tween’s shows Life’s A Zoo, The Wombles, Ace Lightening, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and many more.
His new theatrical release movie, St. Roz, hit the festival circuit and won many awards. His documentary experience has garnered many awards (Canadian Gemini, Gold Hugo) for Offstage, The Disciples and The Right To Play. He is also the host and producer of the travel series Suite & Simple for Fine Living in the USA and CTV in Canada.
St. Roz screenwriter Maryann Kovalski was born and raised in the Bronx, which she believes gave her an early appreciation of the absurd. She attended parochial schools, further honing it, until she enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan studying animation and illustration, where she learned to put it down on paper.
She worked as a free-lance illustrator before embarking on a two-year stay in Montreal that lasted over thirty years in Canada. During those years, she worked as an advertising art director and an illustrator, which evolved into a career as a children’s book author/illustrator of over thirty books. During this time she worked on several screenplays.
“The picture book bears a similarity to a movie in that both are amalgams of word and picture and are similarly paced, though of course the picture book is much shorter,” she says. Having the opportunity to do the animated titles was also a delight. “It was wonderful to be able to come full circle and finally get an animation job after all these years.”
From the age of 12, Rachel has appeared in numerous films and television series, both in Canada and the US. From her breakout role in Breaker High – starring opposite Ryan Gosling – to starring roles in such films as Mystery, Alaska, Anywhere But Here and The Glass House, Rachel has worked with some of the top names in Hollywood.
Most recently, Rachel starred in the Emmy-nominated miniseries The Kennedys, and just finished shooting the indie comedy Unlucky and Certain Prey for Lifetime Network. She is currently reprising her Gemini-nominated role as Dr. Nikki Rehnolds in the CBC series Republic of Doyle.
Victoria has won two Gemini Awards and has been twice nominated for Gemini’s for Best Actress.
She has starred in many films including Men With Brooms, The Piano Man’s Daughter and Blaze and has appeared on numerous television shows across North America including Flashpoint, Queer As Folk and Paradise Falls.
David has starred in over 25 films and hundreds of stage and television productions. Some of his films include Grey Owl, The Saddest Music In The World and the Academy Award winning film Boys and Girls.
In theatre, he has received three Dora Awards for his performances and numerous other nominations for Best Actor on the stage and in his film and TV career.
An original member of The Second City troupe and has been involved in outstanding comedy during her entire career.
Some of her many films include Chicago, Dawn of the Deadand Hairspray and she has just completed filming of four others that are in post-production. She has starred in hundreds of TV series and has performed on stages across the world.
Michael has starred in many MOW’s including The Adventures of Smoke Belliou (where he performed this five part mini-series in English AND French) and is the voice of characters in the children’s shows, The Wombles, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, Upstairs Downstairs Bears, Ace Lightning, to name but a few.
Michael has also starred in theatrical productions across the UK and North America.
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www.osirisent.com