| Monty Comes Back | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Thomas John Nudi |
| Written by | Thomas John Nudi |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Trishul Thejasvi |
| Edited by | Billy Durden |
| Music by | Dylan Glatthorn |
Production company | NuFamCo Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes [2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000 |
Monty Comes Back is a 2016 American drama/comedy film written and directed by Thomas John Nudi and starring Brandon Tyler Jones. The film is set almost entirely in Anna Maria Island, Florida and filmed on location, as well as in Bradenton and Sarasota. It was shot in 16 days during the summer of 2015 on a production budget of only $15,000 [3] collected from a successful Kickstarter campaign, [4] as well as private investors.
Monty (Brandon Tyler Jones) is a semi-successful thespian working in Detroit, Michigan. A former Genius Grant recipient, he has squandered his funds and remains in stasis at a local community theater. After losing his job due to an over-inflated ego, he returns home to Anna Maria Island, Florida to stay with his parents, Ed (Brad Clark) and Marie (Deborah Childs), under the false pretense of being on a "creative hiatus". During his time home, he continues to let his ego destroy his relationships with family and friends while trying to renovate his grandfather's old Chevrolet 210.
[An unlikeable character] was kind of a point of contention for me in film school. We would go back and forth, and people would tell me, "You can't have a main character that you don't like!" I always thought, "Well, why not?"
Thomas John Nudi, 2015 [5]
Thomas John Nudi initially wrote the screenplay for the film during his time as a film production graduate at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, while studying under Barry W. Blaustein (Saturday Night Live, Coming to America). Semi-autobiographical in nature, the film is based on his feelings returning to his hometown after reaching moderate levels of academic success. [6]
The script was acquired by NuFamCo Films in May 2014, and pre-production began in fall of that year.
Monty Comes Back is directed by Thomas John Nudi and produced by Nudi, Vincent Dale, and Trishul Thejasvi (who also doubled as the film's cinematographer). Production was funded by donations through Kickstarter and investors from around Florida's Gulf Coast. Nearly the entire cast and crew volunteered for their respective roles, with much of the crew coming from Ringling College of Art and Design and Suncoast Technical College. [7] Other than Brandon Tyler Jones, a resident of New York City at time of production, and Deborah Childs, of Atlanta, Georgia, the cast was made up entirely of Florida actors.
Filmed over the course of sixteen days between May and June 2015, locations, props, and numerous other resources were donated by businesses and the communities of Manatee County and Sarasota County.
The soundtrack to the film is made up entirely of songs by independent musicians, the majority of whom are Florida-based, of which Nudi collected over a decade. The rights for use in the film were donated by all the artists featured. [8]
The film's score is composed by Dylan Glatthorn, and will be released as a digital download in Summer 2016.
Monty Comes Back is an official selection of the 18th annual Sarasota Film Festival, [10] and premiered April 2, 2016.
Manatee County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county seat and largest city is Bradenton. The county was created in 1855 and named for the Florida manatee, Florida's official marine mammal. Features of Manatee County include access to the southern part of the Tampa Bay estuary, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and the Manatee River.
Bradenton is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698, up from 49,546 at the 2010 census. It is a principal city in the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Downtown Bradenton is along the Manatee River and includes the Bradenton Riverwalk. Downtown Bradenton is also home to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature.
Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost equally divided between the Manatee and Sarasota counties. The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town's population was 7,505 at the 2020 census, up from 6,888 at the 2010 census.
Sarasota is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Greater Tampa Bay Area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Sarasota is a principal city of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 U.S. census, Sarasota had a population of 54,842, up from 51,917 at the 2010 census.
The Sarasota Reds were a professional minor league baseball team, located in Sarasota, Florida, as a member of the Florida State League. The team originally started play in Sarasota as the Sarasota White Sox in 1989. They remained in the city for the next 21 seasons, going through a series of name changes due to their affiliation changes. They were known as the White Sox from 1989–1993, as the Sarasota Red Sox from 1994–2004, and the Reds from 2004–2009. In Sarasota, the team played in Payne Park (1989) and then Ed Smith Stadium (1990–2009). They won two division championships, in 1989 and 1992, and made playoff appearances in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, and 2007.
Christine Chubbuck was an American television news reporter who worked for stations WTOG and WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida. She is the first person to die by suicide on a live television broadcast.
State College of Florida, Manatee–Sarasota (SCF) is a public college with campuses in the Manatee and Sarasota counties of Florida. Part of the Florida College System, it is designated a "state college" because it offers a greater number of bachelor's degrees than community colleges. SCF is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Founded in 1957 as Manatee Junior College, it was known as Manatee Community College from 1985 to 2009.
Manatee High School is the oldest public high school in Bradenton, Florida, operated by the Manatee County School District.
Florida's 16th congressional district is an electoral district for the U.S. Congress which encompasses eastern Hillsborough County and the entirety of Manatee County. In the 2020 redistricting cycle, the district was drawn out of Sarasota and Sarasota County to include more of Tampa's eastern suburbs, including Riverview and parts of Brandon south of Florida State Road 60.
The film industry in Florida is one of the largest in the United States: in 2006, Florida ranked third in the U.S. for film production based on revenue generated. However, more recent 2009-2010 data no longer show Florida among the top four states.
William Saint Galvano is an American Republican politician from Florida. He represented parts of Bradenton area in the Florida Senate from 2012 to 2020 and in the Florida House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010. He served as President of the Senate in his last two years in office.
The Bradenton Marauders are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are located in Bradenton, Florida, and play their home games at LECOM Park, which also serves as the Pirates' spring training facility.
Anna Maria Island is a barrier island on the coast of Manatee County, Florida, in the United States. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Mexico, on the south by Longboat Pass, on the east by Anna Maria Sound, and on the north by Tampa Bay. Anna Maria Island is approximately 7 miles (11 km) long north to south.
Sarasota Chalk Festival is an American cultural event of public art that celebrates a performing art form of pavement art also known as Italian street painting. It was founded in Sarasota, Florida by Denise Kowal. During the festival artists use chalk, and occasionally special paint, to paint the road surface to create large works of art while the viewer can watch the creative process. The festival is focused around the street artists who are known as Madonnari in Italy or commonly referred to Street Painters, Chalk Artists, Sidewalk Artists, or Pavement Artists. The festival is held annually in downtown Sarasota in Burns Square.
Ego Leonard is a Dutch painter and sculptor, and possibly an anonymous guerrilla artist, whose works prominently feature outsized Lego figures. Sometimes the name also is applied to sculptures, apparently made by Leonard, which have been found on beaches at various locations in the world since the late 2000s. The sculptures are in the form of "minifigures", but are constructed from fibreglass enlarged to two and a half metres in height, and have the message “No Real Than You Are” in capital letters written on their torsos. The appearance of an "Ego Leonard" giant figure on Siesta Beach, Florida, became number two on the Time list of the "Top 10 Oddball-News Stories of 2011." It is unclear whether Ego Leonard is the name of a person or merely a fictional character as the figure, but it is most likely a fictional name, as Ego Leonard can be reworked to read L, Ego or LEGO. The letters can also be rearranged to spell "A LEGO drone".
The Del Couch Music Education Foundation offers children free access to music education, recording equipment and mentorship. The foundation is located inside the Manatee School for the Arts in Palmetto, Florida, where the program founder and director Del Couch conducts four levels of classroom training in music recording and production and providing performance opportunities through events and mentorships. Alumni of the program include 2014 fifth-place American Idol finalist, Sam Woolf, and singer-songwriter recording artist Matt Walden, Carolina Opry star Colton Cason, Christian artist/singer songwriter Taylor Zebracki, Andy Pursell, who recently was signed as a national Salt Life artist, David Smash who was from Lithuania, Couch produced his first US CD and he went on to become a major You Tube personality, Trevor Bystrom. Mario Martinez, aka "The Lazy Menace", Isabella Bank and others. The foundation's head intern, Maguire Fraatz, a senior at MSA, produced the first CD for "Penny Fountain" an alternative rock band consisting of Tony Massaro-Koon (guitar) Xavier Wilkinson (bass/vocals) & Joel Lopez (drums) the band recently opened for national act "We The Kings" at the Bradenton Area Regatta, and performed on the upcoming realty tv show "No Covers". Couch has produced the music the Bradenton Area Regatta for 5 years. Couch has also toured with Jeff Cook & The Allstar Band, and recorded on Rick Derringer's "Free Ride " smooth jazz CD. Couch has worked with actresses Audrey Landers (Dallas) and Jane Seymour and her son. Couch also produced the popular Winterfest concerts drawing over 20,000 fans listening to national acts and featured foundation students throughout the day long events.
The Martial Arts Kid is a 2015 martial arts film directed by Michael Baumgarten and starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock as a couple who take in their nephew Jansen Panettiere, and teach him martial arts when he is bullied. Most of the supporting cast of the film are actual martial artists, some of whom appear as themselves in the film.
Brutus is a short film directed by Konstantin Fam of 2015, the second novel of the film trilogy "Witnesses" and the sequel of the "Shoes", dedicated to the memory of Holocaust victims.
Axis is a 2017 drama film written by and starring Emmett Hughes. The film marks the feature film directorial debut of Aisha Tyler, who raised funds for the project through a Kickstarter campaign. The film premiered at the 19th annual Sarasota Film Festival in April 2017.
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