Independent Horror Film Gets Hollywood Star Power

By Roger Bennett

Contributing Writer

Tom Hillery, owner and creator of Starlight Productions Nevada LLC, is relatively new to the world of film production and development, but has already begun making his mark on the industry. Tom has just recently developed, executive produced and released the new film thriller, “Project Solitude: Buried Alive,” starring well-known actor Eric Roberts in the film’s lead role. Tom, a Boston native who has recently relocated to be a resident of Las Vegas, shuttled back and forth between Boston and Los Angeles during the early stages of development of the film. Once production had started, the movie itself was filmed in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Tom says his intention was to do an original horror film. “The story first started as a concept for me about five years ago,” he said. The story, plot, and characters are completely Tom’s creation. The final script was written and directed by Rustam Branaman. The film is the story of John Sola, played by Eric Roberts, who is a very intelligent professor of sociology at a prestigious university. Frustrated with seeing some of his university peers moving past him while his own career advancement has overlooked, Professor Sola decides to fund and conduct a sociology experiment of his own up in the Wisconsin woods in order to gain recognition. In his decision to fund the sociological experiment, Professor Sola is encouraged by Dean Sterling, played by Richard Riehle. Sola’s experiment, with the help of a group of paid participants, is meant to study the necessity of cooperation with authority under strenuous conditions. Unfortunately, the story takes a horrific turn when the participants start disappearing one by one and it is determined that there is a killer amongst them who is conducting their own experiment in “solitude.”

According to Tom, having a recognizable star like Eric Roberts to help support a modestly budgeted and produced film is almost a necessity. “Roberts was a pleasure to work with. He is a true professional in every sense of the word. And he brought even more depth and dimension to the character of John Sola than I wrote into it”, said Tom. Some other male characters who were under consideration for the role were David Hasselhoff, Armand Assante and Judd Nelson, before Roberts was finally chosen to play the male lead. Roberts, best known for such iconic film characters as “Paulie,” with co-star Mickey Rourke in the classic film “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” and his academy award nominated role as the character ‘Buck’ with Jon Voight and Rebecca De Mornay in the film thriller “Runaway Train,” eagerly came aboard after reading the well-written script. Roberts has been seen more recently in roles in huge Hollywood blockbusters like “The Dark Knight” and “The Expendables.”

Besides Tom’s multitude of functions in the creation of the film, and Rustam as screenwriter and director, the casting of the talented group of actors was done by Gerald Wolff, whom Tom said, like the rest of the cast and crew, was indispensable to the creation of the film. Besides acting as casting director, Gerald also stayed on through the project, offering advice and assistance all the way through production to the distribution stage. In addition to Eric Roberts in the lead role, the film also features actors Stacy Stas as Kitty, David Frye as Calvin, Michelle Belegrin as Priscella, Vanessa Lee Evigan as Mia, Danny Vasquez as Carlos, Kevin Rich as Steven, and Jenna Zablocki as Sara. There are also cameo appearances in the film by Rob Davis, formerly a player for the Green Bay Packers, and Jim Schmidt, mayor of Green Bay. Tom recounts that it was very cold in Green Bay at the time of year the film was in production, but all of the cast and crew were “phenomenal” to work with, from Roberts the star all the way down to the grips, and everyone really put 100% into contributing to the film’s creation.

Tom says that he feels it’s important that his scripts focus on characters, rather than special effects and huge production budgets. “I enjoyed working on the project, and would do it all over again,” he said. In fact, Tom’s next project, another psychological thriller, is in development with Gerald Wolff, with whom he worked on “Project Solitude.” It is titled “Looks Can Kill,” a story about murder among the modeling agencies, and should be starting production sometime this May.

Domestic distribution for “Project Solitude: Buried Alive” is by Synergetics, and overseas distribution by Allied Entertainment. Look for it on DVD and elsewhere.

Click here to see interview with Eric Roberts.

Read more about the film and purchase it here at Walmart.com.