Bianca is Back in We Are Kings...with Boogie!

    NEW YORK, NY, February 04, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The question is, how did they do it? We Are Kings is a sprawling road movie musical that tells the story of a broken down bluesman that seeks, and finds, redemption on the road.

Its the very last type of movie you'd want to make on a low, or lets say "no", budget.

But they did it.

The movie premiered in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema and just had its iTunes premiere in December, and its Amazon premiere is imminent. Chuck Wilson in his review of the film in the New York Village Voice called it "that rare thing: a film about musicians where you actually look forward to the next song...singer Bianca Ryan, guitarist Boogie Long, and the rapper Pryce each gets a solo number, and are so bursting with talent that it's impossible to pick a favorite."

But for the producers of the movie it was a bumpy road indeed. A bumpy road pock marked with...remarkable luck.

The lead actor in the movie was to be legendary bluesman Magic Slim. But after a year of preparation in November, 2012, Magic became ill and was forced to withdraw from the film. Slim was to pass away just three months later. Without a lead actor, and without Magic's music, the film was floundering, and the investors disappeared. Another one bites the dust.

Sometime in early December writer/director Toby Hubner, already two years on the project, walked into Clint Eastwood's movie Trouble with the Curve in Paris, France, and noticed a bluesman playing in the background behind Justin Timberlake...It was Sammy Blue. There was something about Sammy's face, his electric expressions... Hubner tracked down Sammy Blue in mid December, who told the producers he would love to play the lead, but that the movie would have to start in three weeks in early January.

Still, it was impossible. There was no money to make the movie, all the available cash had been spent on preparing the movie with Magic Slim. And to pre-produce and plan a movie musical in three weeks was the equivalent of cinema suicide. That's when Hubner was approached in a Paris Starbucks by an American looking for his French teacher..."Are you Francois" the stranger asked Hubner. "No, but you're American" Hubner responded, and this total stranger became the first significant investor in We Are Kings, supplemented later by Hubner's roommate from college.

The movie was complicated further by a vintage 1975 Winnebago that had to make the trip from Mississippi to Chicago and back. The film had a ghost character as well and its appearances required potentially hugely expensive special effects.

And then there was the music. We Are Kings was a musical and it required original music and there was none to be had...Magic Slim's song catalogue no longer fit the movie without Magic. And none of the other performers even knew the movie had a start date.

Still, not enough money to start. Even with the loyal roommate and the American who looked for Francois.

But start it did, thanks to a little envelope that Hubner discovered randomly in his mail. Inside was a huge bonus of Southwest Airlines mileage accompanying a Southwest Airlines/Chase credit card. That officially launched the movie. But is that all it takes to green light a movie these days? In 2015 that's Filmmaking 101, and major studios beware. The barriers to entry are coming crashing down, and We Are Kings is a case in point.

Because of its low, actually "no" budget, the project had no movie names. It did however have music celebrities, including Bianca Ryan, the winner of Ameria's Got Talent at age 11.

Bianca had watched the project almost get made, and then crash, and then rise from the ashes, and she never lost hope. When Hubner announced the start of principal photography, for the third time, her response was...send me a plane ticket. He did...and she arrived.

After her amazing win on America's Got Talent, which included $1 million in prize money, Bianca traveled the world performing but eschewed the glitzy teenage stardom route. Rather, she continued to grow up as a normal teenager in Philadelphia, her home town, and concentrate on developing her skills as a songwriter. Those skills would pay off in We Are Kings.

Bianca is also a committed Christian, and unbeknownst to the other cast and crew it was revealed after production wrapped that during her down time Bianca and her father would visit terminally ill patients in hospitals in the Peoria area to spread cheer and good will.

Sammy Blue was a popular Atlanta bluesman, and Rita Graham was the legendary Diva who performed with Harry James and Mercer Ellington and was one of Ray Charles' original "Raelettes". Pryce Watkins was an up and coming rapper in Atlanta.

And then there was Jonathan Boogie Long, the movie's wild card blues phenom. Known as the Baton Rouge Blue's Explosion, Boogie went on, after the movie wrapped, to open for B B King at age 23. Some are already hailing him as the next Stevie Rae Vaughn.

We Are Kings is a testimony to what can be done on a low budget by huge talent. Needing a crew of 25, the movie started with a crew of six that included a photographer, a sound girl, and four students.

With original music to be recorded and THEN performed in the movie, the already exhausted director threw a dart at the Normal, Illinois yellow pages and located by total chance Eclipse Studios in a strip mall close to where the production was located. Its owner, Erik Nelson, turned out to be a Quincy Jones type music polyglot, mastering several instruments and sophisticated recording software. The recording results of the two room studio at the edge of a cornfield rivalled huge complexes in New York and Los Angeles.

The cast was flown in to Chicago and chauffeured south (by the students) to the Super 8 Motel in El Paso, Illinois. The production's canteen became the local restaurant next door, home cooking provided courtesy of its owner, a Greek lady named Rosa. The local farmers were puzzled. A movie's come to town? The Indian owners of the motel, virtually empty in sub zero January, allowed the filmmakers to turn the premises into a virtual studio. Huge extension cords were strung into a corn field a half mile away for location lighting. Whole contents of rooms were transported to nearby locations. Eureka High School and the local bowling alley provided students and bowlers as extras. Somehow, the film started principal photography on January 8 with a six person crew, with only 4 days of preproduction, and just 3 weeks after Hubner's first meeting with Sammy Blue.

The director was terrified that the Winnebago (known as the Blues Bucket), unregistered and uninsured, would be pulled over by the local police and impounded. It was also functioning as the film's studio, albeit a frigid one, with many interiors of the road movie shot inside. But the El Paso Police threw in with the film, and a local officer became an actor, and supplied police station, police car, and police dog all free of charge.

Inspired, the cast met for breakfast two days into the shoot and started writing songs. On napkins, in their rooms, overnight, padding around the Motel 8 in frigid El Paso, exchanging notes, playing their guitars, singing, and creating what would turn out to be compelling original music that was then performed in the movie. Complex, original songs with arrangements that could have required months in industry studios. The recordings were done in three days.

An important collaboration developed between Bianca and Boogie, first as song writers and then as singer-musician-producers in the studio. Boogie Long and Sammy Blue became typhoons in the studio, playing instruments, writing arrangements, and singing complicated harmonies. Sammy Blue cranked out original songs with Pryce and Rita Graham. Somehow...it all worked, and the music stands out as as one of the most original movie musical sound tracks in years.

Bianca's original song "Broken Down House" is a highlight of the soundtrack, as well as a funky country song called "Are You From Dixie". Boogie Long contributed their duet "Headin to the Delta" and Sammy Blue and Rita collaborated on "Master of Disaster". But its the movie's theme song, We Are Kings, which was written by the group, that stands out, and was submitted for Oscar consideration.

It all goes to show what you can do with a lot of determination, and just a little money...

Contact info: Toby Hubner, Producer
[email protected]
wearekingsthemovie.com
US Tel: 718-902-1130
France Tel: 33 6 1981 7297

Distribution:
Indie Rights
[email protected]
CEO/Nelson Madison Films/Indie Rights
117 Winston Street, #306
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Indie Rights Movie Channel
Nelson Madison Films
Indie Rights
(213) 280-5350 Cell
(213) 613-1587 Office
nelsonmadisonfilms Skype
nelsonmadison Twitter


We Are Kings Project Background Links

We Are Kings New York Village Voice Review Sept 19, 2014
http://www.villagevoice.com/movies/we-are-kings-4938127/

We Are Kings Official Website
http://wearekingsthemovie.com

We Are Kings Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/WeAreKingsTheMovie

We Are Kings Wikepdia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Kings_(film)

We Are Kings TUGG site
http://www.tugg.com/titles/we-are-kings

We Are Kings YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNHQ9gr0yzixx7pdVhDHTJA

We Are Kings Movie on iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/we-are-kings/id929817084

We Are Kings on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/We_Are_Kings?id=Vjpb7EaMOBo

We Are Kings Official Soundtrack on iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/we-are-kings-official-movie/id946036372

We Are Kings Official Soundtrack on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Are-Kings-Official-Movie-Soundtrack/dp/B00QLX4OGQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1422281104&sr=8-3&keywords=we+are+kings+soundtrack

We Are Kings Official Soundtrack on CDBABY
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/wearekings3

We Are Kings Official Trailer on Youtube
http://youtu.be/jScWxk7-Gtc

We Are Kings LA Weekly Review Sept. 19, 2014
http://www.laweekly.com/los-angeles/we-are-kings/Film?oid=5080957

We Are Kings OC (Orange Country) Review Sept. 19, 2014
http://www.ocweekly.com/movies/we-are-kings-1806228/

Bourgeois Magazine article We Are Kings Sept. 19, 2014
http://bourgeoismagazinela.com/2014/09/22/love-and-soul-we-are-kings-la-movie-premiere/

Dove Foundation Family Viewing Certification and Review
http://api.dove.org/reviewpopup.asp?Unique_ID=10427


Talent Links

Sammy Blue and Rita Graham Duet
http://youtu.be/879fbeoJEis

Montreal Blues Fest Boogie Sings The Dealer
http://youtu.be/WFAzT2CDoEc

Boogie Long wins Guitar Center's King of the Blues Award
http://youtu.be/zcPsr6wdzIQ

Bianca Ryan Winning America's Got Talent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI0cyKUWbOM

Bianca's Winning Performance America's Got Talent
http://youtu.be/BD8Q8zWlCy8

Rita Graham sings with Harry James in London 1971
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkAYPh8uUEs&feature=youtu.be

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