Exit Franz Kerr, enter Richard Keene...
So now, Franz is behind me in all ways...I've shed him, vowed to dismiss him. Playing Franz in various sessions and shooting clusters from 8/04 to 10/05 was quite a journey for me...In many ways, there was a haunting from the character that several people pointed out to me, and some never knew me as anything BUT Franz, or other than while haunted
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AN INVICTUS FILMS PRODUCTION
A writer, an actor and the actor’s wife are immersed in a love triangle, set against the backdrop of McCarthy era “blacklisting”; the actor’s testimony sends the writer to prison, during which time he writes a play about betrayal, producing it upon his release with the actor starring in the lead role.
SYNOPSIS:
FRANZ KERR, a writer in his thirties, is warned in a phone call by MARIAN STOREY, a former actress, that her husband, star actor BRAD STOREY, has been called in front of the House Commission on Un-American Activities and that he plans to denounce anyone he knows to have had ties to the American Communist Party. Franz, who never joined the ACP, is worried, since Brad has much to lose and may know that Franz has been having an affair with Marian.
Franz and Brad confront one another, and it becomes clear that Brad will name Franz, as well as Franz’s mentor and friend, SOLOMAN WEISZ, as communists in order to save himself. Franz discusses the situation with Sol and Marian, and Franz goes into the Committee with a refusal to cooperate, and is then sent to jail for Contempt of Congress along with Sol, who managed to survive a German concentration camp before coming to the USA.
Brad and Marian part bitterly on the issues of betrayal of the friends and of one another. As Marian leaves to restart her life as a single woman and mother, Franz and Sol seek comfort in their friendship and intellects while incarcerated, and Brad films a Western in which he stars as a villain.
Upon his release, Franz is met by Marian at his New York apartment. They are now a couple, and Brad visits them to reopen old wounds. But a strange collaboration takes place, cathartic for each of them: together, they shall bring the play Franz has written, “The Judas Kiss”, into being.
As rehearsals begin, Franz is visited by his ex-wife, the beautiful international star IRENE KERR, who is also a friend of Marian’s. It is obvious that Franz is still in love with her, and that she delights in knowing this fact. Irene meets with Brad, and later with Marian, in order to keep herself apprised of Franz’s work. Marian suspects a betrayal from Franz, but gives Irene tickets to the opening night of the play, unbeknownst to Franz, who believes that his ex-wife has left town. The drama mounts as rehearsals near a close; themes of personal and political betrayal, jealousy and absolution abound in the theater.
On opening night, the play is received enthusiastically by the audience, and Franz knows that he has created something special, not just within the story he has written, but in the consciousness of his cast and crew. At the party that follows in Franz’s apartment, old betrayals surface once again between the writer, actor and the woman who loved them, leaving the three in accepting that lies have long lives, and those lies must be lived out to their natural end.
THE JUDAS KISS:
COMING SOON TO A THEATER, TV, DVD, OnDEMAND, & iPOD near you!
AE:
Soon! Soon means SOON! Damn it! Now KISS ass like you mean it, damn it!
Excuse me Mr. Producer! Make way while I direct traffic! Time to crank it up!
Lights! Camera! Action! Reaction! Satisfaction!
Let's get this show on the road!
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