'SAVANNAH' Filmmaker Annette Haywood-Carter Greenlit, Southern Style
Haywood-Carter made her directing debut when Steven Spielberg saw her first film, a short starring Leonardo DiCaprio, THE FOOT SHOOTING PARTY, and hired her to direct SEAQUEST. She's now set to make the historical film, SAVANNAH.
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) December 15, 2010 - Randall Miller & Jody Savin, the filmmaking team behind the Chris Pine and Alan Rickman starrer, BOTTLE SHOCK, have closed the financing and assembled the team to kick off writer/director Annette Haywood-Carter's historical film, SAVANNAH. The film is to be shot entirely on location in Savannah, Georgia with an anticipated start date for principal photography of February 14th.
SAVANNAH tells the true story of Ward Allen, a white aristocrat, and Christmas Moultrie, a freed slave, in the early 1900's. Ward Allen was a romantic naturalist in the vein of Thoreau, an aristocrat who turned his back on a life of material comfort to become a market hunter. He and Christmas Moultrie became business partners, confidantes and life-long friends and together they tried to navigate the vicissitudes of social, industrial, environmental and personal change that threatened their way of life.
"This is a great story steeped in the lore of Savannah, Georgia," says Haywood-Carter. "Being a Southerner born and bred, it has been a passion of mine to tell great stories from our unique and particular socio-geographic tapestry."
Haywood-Carter made her directing debut when Steven Spielberg saw her first film, a short starring Leonardo DiCaprio, THE FOOT SHOOTING PARTY, and hired her to direct SEAQUEST. "Jody & I have known Annette for years, since her start as a script-supervisor on such films as DRIVING MISS DAISY and CLIFFHANGER. Annette has worked with so many of the greats, from Bruce Beresford to Steven Spielberg, and learned from them all," says Miller. "Annette is a beautiful writer. There is a poetry to her words that evokes a time and place and brings her story to life," adds Savin. "She also has an incredible eye for talent. Her first feature, FOXFIRE, starred as yet undiscovered Angelina Jolie." Haywood-Carter and her husband Ken Carter, with whom she often writes, moved to Savannah where Annette took a hiatus from directing to raise her two small children and teach graduate classes in filmmaking at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Miller & Savin will produce the film under their production banner Unclaimed Freight Productions, the company behind the upcoming THE DRUMMER: The Story of the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson and the much buzzed about UNTITLED CBGB's true-to-life tale, about the birth of the American punk scene and New York's legendary club CBGB which are also scheduled for production in 2011.
Savin & Miller have partnered with John Cay and Meddin Studios on the project to bring both the financing and the production to light. Meddin Studios toppers Nick Gant and Jon Foster will work closely with the filmmakers to bring Haywood-Carter's dream to life.
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