Movie studios may be years off from building sound stages in Las Vegas, but local filmmakers are still creating work here and elsewhere. And two of them are making big splashes in the industry.
The most recent local filmmaker success story is Strange Darling, the twist-filled thriller by director/writer JT Mollner. It was released in over 1,000 theaters nationwide and currently has a 94 percent approval rating at review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The small-budget film has grossed $3 million in the U.S. so far, mostly due to fervent word of mouth.
Mollner is renowned in Las Vegas for being part of the family that produces the long-running Freakling Brothers haunted-house attraction every Halloween season. He's released one feature before, but according to film writer Josh Bell — who interviewed Mollner recently for Desert Companion — he may already have reached a zenith in the local film industry. "I'm pretty sure that JT Mollner is the most successful filmmaker at this point to come out of Las Vegas," says Bell.
While Mollner works on the adapted screenplay of Stephen King's novella The Long Walk, another local filmmaker has found success also using the bestselling horror author's material.
Julia Marchese adapted King's I Know What You Need through his former Dollar Baby program, where he only charges filmmakers one dollar for the rights to his short stories provided they don't show the film commercially in theaters or on TV. However, not only was Marchese one of the last Dollar Baby filmmakers to complete a film adaptation, King made an exception for I Know What You Need and allowed Marchese's movie to be streamed. It's currently on the Arrow platform and showing at festivals, including an upcoming Stephen King fan convention this October in Las Vegas.
And that wasn't the only exception King granted her. "This was a favorite story of hers," says Bell. "She said that for the Dollar Baby [program], there is a list of approved stories to choose from, and [I Know] was not on the list. But again, in terms of Stephen King being very generous to her, she asked if she could do this story anyway, and he said yes."
Marchese is the daughter of Lamar Marchese, the founder of Nevada Public Radio.
Guest: Josh Bell, writer, Desert Companion
