As happens to independent films from time to time, the production of John Pogue's Wake has run out of cash and had to close down production. The film was shooting in Cleveland, one of my old stomping grounds, and it was the local paper, The Plain Dealer, that got the scoop. If the film gets back on track and starts shooting again it will be an action thriller starring Bruce Willis as "a sociopath who battles a team of mercenaries following his brother's funeral." The character sound like the polar opposite kind of action man to Die Hard's sobbing John McClane. Let it never be said that Bruno doesn't have range. Piper Perabo, Ben Kingsley and Ellen Burstyn also have roles in the picture, and presumably still will if things get moving again quickly enough. John Pogue's most recent film was The Quiet Ones. I met him on set and was impressed by the sincerity with which he approaches B-movie material. I think it's also reflected on his resume - the films might not be very innovative, and they're not always effective, but they're handled with enough care. I can only imagine everybody working on Wake is absolutely distraught. Hopefully some new money will be incoming, the cashflow will open up again and the cameras can once more start doing whatever it is digital cameras do instead of roll. source - cleveland.com
Brendon Connelly has been a film writer since the early 90s, with time on the staff of Orbit Magazine, Slashfilm, Bleeding Cool, Den of Geek and many more. He's a long time teacher of film studies and practical filmmaking classes, and has directed music videos, commercials, short films and more. His favourite film is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, his favourite food is pancakes or crepes, and he tries to live his life by the teachings of Kermit the Frog.
