Subscribe
The movie features a group of veterans that awaken from a night of partying to find the zombie apocalypse has begun. This sets them on a mission to find a cure before the United States is overrun.
The starring cast members include U.S. Army veterans Nick Palmisciano, a former infantry officer, Mat Best, a former infantryman, and Jarred Taylor, a former U.S. Air Tactical Air Control Party Specialist.
Before the movie began audience members had the opportunity to ask the cast a few questions.
A member of the crowd asked what inspired them to go with a zombie theme for the film.
Palmisciano replied that “[i]t’s the kind of thing veterans sit around and talk about while watching shows like ‘The Walking Dead.’ What you do in the event of a zombie apocalypse.”
Best took a slightly different approach saying “[w]e thought it would be funny to make a comedy about zombies from the military perspective, you watch these characters on these shows wandering around for four-years doing the same thing. We thought we would add an element of comedy to our movie.”
Although Range 15 was produced in Hollywood and has many celebrity appearances, its cast of over 70% with military service, makes it the largest number of armed forces members ever to appear in a movie.
The cast includes two Medal of Honor recipients, one Navy Cross recipient, two Silver Star awardees, over 20 Bronze Star awardees, and more than 30 Purple Heart recipients.
The popularity of the film, currently the number two comedy in America, also took top honors in the GI Film Festival winning the “Best in Fest” award.
“We were totally stunned with how well the movie did,” said Best. “I think it was because of our large YouTube following and support from the community that helped make this movie a success. “
“It was our goal to make a movie for the military community,” said Palmisciano. “We wanted something they could call their own and would last through time.”
In spite of the film’s success, it almost didn’t make it to the “Big Screen” due to lack of funding. Producers needed a way to come up with the $200,000 that they were short, so the team reached out to fans through crowd sourced funding to cover the difference.
Supporters, a majority of whom are military and government employees, donated a combined $1.2 million, which allowed them to finish the two-year project, and made it one of the largest crowd sourced movies in history.
“I think we were all taken by surprise with the outreach from the fans and community,” Taylor said.
As the movie concluded, Soldiers began whistling and jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.
“This movie not only gives hope to those veterans that are thinking about a career in film, but it shows all veterans there is no excuse to not follow your dreams; you are not alone and you have supporters throughout the country,” Palmisciano said.
| Date Taken: | 07.13.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.15.2016 06:23 |
| Story ID: | 204043 |
| Location: | EL PASO , TX, US |
| Web Views: | 183 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, STARS of RANGE 15 VISIT CAMP BUEHRING, by SSG Killo Gibson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT