RISE Production Information

Principal photography has wrapped on “Rise,” writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez’s horror-thriller from Ghost House Pictures. Starring Lucy Liu (“Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”) and Golden Globe® and Emmy®-winning Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”), with Greg Shapiro (“Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”) of Kingsgate Films producing. Rounding out the cast are Carla Gugino (“Sin City”) and James D’Arcy (“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”). Key cameos include Robert Forster (“Jackie Brown”), Samaire Armstrong (“Entourage”), and music icons Marilyn Manson and Nick Lachey.

“Rise” is a supernatural thriller in which a reporter (Liu) wakes up in a morgue to discover she is no longer among the living. She vows revenge against the cult responsible for putting her there and hunts them down one by one. Chiklis plays 'Rawlins,' a haunted police detective whose daughter is killed by the same cult and seeks answers for her gruesome death.

The behind-the-scenes team includes two-time Academy Award®-winning cinematographer John Toll, ASC, who has the honor of being the only cinematographer to win back-to-back Oscars for his work on “Legends of the Fall” and “Braveheart.”

Additionally, production designer Jerry Fleming (“Permanent Midnight”) and costume designer Denise Wingate (“Wedding Crashers”), who previously collaborated with Gutierrez on his directorial debut “Judas Kiss,” return for this feature film. Lisa Bromwell (Showtime’s “Weeds”) and Robb Sullivan (“A Good Year”) serve as editors.

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ABOUT THE STORY

Sadie (LUCY LIU) is an investigative reporter who has stumbled upon an underground cult that is attracting the young hipsters of Los Angeles. When these kids start disappearing then turning up dead, she wants to understand why. In the midst of her investigation, she herself falls prey to the mastermind behind all the gruesome murders and nothing is the same again.

When Sadie awakes in the dark, pushing her way out into the light, she discovers she’s not alive, but she’s not dead either. As she traipses through the seedy underbelly of downtown Los Angeles, her senses are reeling-- she must feed to quench her thirst and blood is the nourishment she needs. How can she kill innocent people to satisfy her craving? Why is she alive when she should be dead?

Detective Rawlins (MICHAEL CHIKLIS) has lost his only daughter to this cult. Distraught over her death, he vows to find her killer and exact his revenge. When Sadie crosses his path, he believes that she is the killer, but soon learns she will lead him to those that did their heinous deeds to his only child. He and Sadie are on the same mission—out to kill the same person— so joining forces makes sense, even if Sadie is technically as dead as his own daughter.

As they go on their hunt, Sadie and Rawlins come to an agreement. Their pact is to kill all members of the cult, in hopes of finding their leader, so that these murders of the innocent will stop.

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“RISE” COMES TO LIFE

Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez steps behind the camera for a third time with “Rise.” His previous films were “Judas Kiss” and HBO’s “She Creature.” A respected Hollywood screenwriter, with such movies as “Gothika,” “The Big Bounce” and the upcoming remake of “The Eye” to his credit, he yearned to direct again, so when the opportunity presented itself, he jumped at it.

“This movie came to me because I like vampire movies; I just couldn’t remember the last vampire movie that I really liked,” offers Gutierrez.

“I love the myth of the vampires which exists in every culture, but for me, the moment that there are fangs or garlic, it becomes really campy and no longer scary,” he continues.

“So the idea was really to do something sort of film noir-like with a female protagonist and introduce the concept of vampires into that. As a result, we have a movie that is basically a thriller about a cult—it happens to be a cult of vampires,” Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez explains.

Lucy Liu immediately agreed to play the lead character of ‘Sadie.’ She admits, “I first read the script at 3:00am in the morning and so I understood the project from that perspective, what it needed and what the character was about. It wasn’t strictly horror—it has an incredible emotional undercurrent, that and it had a thriller, noir quality about it.”

She continues, “I met Sebastian a couple of days later and we hit it off. It’s hard to explain, but sometimes you just connect with things; this script and Sebastian were things that I connected with.”

Her co-star Michael Chiklis remembers, “I really responded to the script, but meeting Sebastian was sort of the nail in the coffin as it were. He struck me as a guy who really loves the cinema and is knowledgeable about it. He really made me feel like he was going to make a very good picture.”

Chiklis, who has never appeared in a horror film, continues, “What really appealed to me is that the word ‘vampire’ is never used in the film. Sebastian made it clear that there was never going to be the biting of the neck shot—that conventional vampire movie thing. Instead, it’s going to be something very unique—what we’re going for is a true noir—and that appealed to me greatly.”

Carla Gugino, who starred in Gutierrez’s other two films, admits, “It’s always exciting to be on any project where the director has a really strong vision. And with this movie, we have a phenomenal director of photography, John Toll, and an amazing group of actors, so there is a great level of collaboration.”

When speaking of Academy Award-winning Cinematographer John Toll, ASC, Chiklis agrees, “John Toll is a legend. He’s perhaps one of the best three cinematographers alive right now and certainly one of my favorites. I honestly wanted to work with him, too, so that just finished it for me—I was like ‘I’m in!’”

Chiklis considers, “The appeal of a true noir is that the classic look is from the shadows. This movie isn’t about special effects—this is about actors and cameras. This is about light and dark and creepy things in the shadows. Any artist that’s in the film business loves films that are shot this way.”

James D’Arcy, who plays the villainous leader of the cult, muses, “I think it’s a film noir that lives in this strange heightened reality. I hesitate to say that it’s a horror film or a vampire film because I don’t think it does justice what Sebastian has written. There’s a much stronger undercurrent than those terms would suggest passing through the film. I’m hoping we’re making something that is very emotional and very real.”

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A TALE OF REVENGE?

Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez reveals, “Rise is a serial killer movie in which our protagonist is the serial killer, and we, the audience, want her to commit the killings.”

He counters, “If it was just a straight revenge tale, it becomes more of an action movie—I am interested in the emotional moments.”

He adds, “At the heart of the story there is this emotional core. It’s very sad—Sadie’s been killed. It’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. She is trying to understand it, put an end to those that wronged her, and die again. There is this sense of dread, of the wrong that has already happened and you can’t correct it—you just learn to understand it—or not.”

He offers, “Sadie has become something that she doesn’t want to be and she struggles with that for the entire film and tries to do the right thing under those circumstances which you know is a pretty tough thing for her to go through.”

Liu continues, “Sadie wants to be alive again, but she can’t have that. What is her option? What is her choice? She tries to kill herself—but no, that’s not going to work, so she chooses this path. It’s a story where people die for a reason.”

As ‘Sadie,’ a reporter who transforms herself into a killer once she realizes it’s the only way she can avenge her murderers, Liu reveals, “She’s a normal person that’s caught up in this insane situation. She comes on really strong, and then as we watch the movie, we see that she’s completely unraveled and must become a soldier and warrior.”

Chiklis, known by many for his role as ‘Vic Mackey’ on the popular television show “The Shield,” explains his character of ‘Detective Rawlins,’ “He’s different than any other cop that I’ve played; he’s perhaps the most damaged—he’s lost everything that mattered to him—his daughter—to these monsters. He’s really hurting and damaged, and wants to exact revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s death.”

Chiklis admits, “My character is very much in a vigilante mode in this film. Yet in connecting with this girl ‘Sadie,’ there’s this undercurrent of hope and even if he’s beyond hope, as damaged as he is, he finds hope with her since she’s even more damaged than him. Their mistrusting relationship turns into a strange partnership, to almost a relationship where there’s this odd, for want of a better word, sort of love between them.”

Liu agrees, “My character has an objective and she needs to see it through. ‘Rawlins’ comes in because of his own objective of trying to figure out who killed his daughter. They sort of clash, but then it turns into a partnership.”

Gutierrez further elaborates on the nature of his two lead characters’ relationship, “It’s very volatile and goes through a gamut of things—from antagonist to sexual tension to father figure to not trusting each other to trusting each other—there are all sort of things that happen between them.”

He simplifies, “Our protagonist is left for dead at the beginning. In its simplest level, once she realizes she can’t die the way that other people can die, she decides to stop them from doing this to anybody else.”

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TO BE A ‘VAMPIRE’ OR NOT TO BE A ‘VAMPIRE’?

Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez describes, “The word ‘vampire’ is never mentioned in the script. You never see things that you see in certain vampire movies—like somebody biting somebody’s neck and blood coming out. The vampires look like regular people; they are not paler.”

He smiles, “But there are a couple of vampire conventions that we couldn’t get rid of. Like sunlight is not so fun for them—but I don’t think they melt in the sun as much as they get a really bad migraine.”

Liu concedes, “It’s atypical because there’s no fangs, there’s not garlic around the neck, there’s no cross.”

Gugino admits, “It’s about playing with some of those clichés, but not making them obvious by turning them on their head which is cool.”

James D’Arcy, a British actor known to American audiences for his turn in “Master And Commander,” plays ‘Bishop.’ He compliments, “Sebastian has done a fantastic job creating this world where he’s avoiding as many of the clichés as possible. We never call anybody a vampire, there are no teeth, nobody sleeps in coffins.”

D’Arcy continues, “The script is rooted in some kind of reality. It’s obviously somewhat unbelievable in that it’s about vampires, but actually at the heart of the story there is something that I think anybody can relate to.”

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A LITTLE MOVIE WITH BIG CAMEOS

One of the unique aspects of the Director Sebastian Gutierrez’s script is the interesting roles that exist in it. As ‘Sadie’ goes on her journey, she runs into some intriguing, amusing and strange people. Thanks to Gutierrez’s reputation in Hollywood, casting those roles, even the smallest, wasn’t difficult. He considers, “Maybe it’s because I’m a writer that I’m usually very compassionate to my characters. This movie is in no way cruel, even though violent and horrible things happen in the movie. Even the alleged bad guys have a good side.”

Robert Forster, who many know from his Oscar-nominated performance in “Jackie Brown,” will appear at the very beginning of the movie in a brief, but key scene. Audiences will also encounter Cameron Richardson, known to many for her role in “Point Pleasant,” who joins Forster in his scene.

Samaire Armstrong, whose best known for her roles on Fox’s “The O.C.” and HBO’s “Entourage,” appears as ‘Jenny,’ one of Bishop’s victims who tragically learns that his line, ‘Sex and murder are the only pleasures left to man,’ is not meant to seduce her, but rather to warn of the pending doom.

In addition, Nick Lachey, whose past acting credits include guests appearances on the WB’s “Charmed” and a cameo in 2005’s “Bewitched,” makes an appearance as ‘Dwayne.’

Writer/Director Gutierrez commends, “Nick is very funny as ‘Dwayne’ in this sort of endearing, not so bright, not the sharpest tool in the shed, kind of guy.”

Another key cameo is Goth icon, Marilyn Manson, who ironically doesn’t play a ‘vampire’ as many of his fans would think, but rather acts as a ‘bartender.’ Manson muses, “I thought it would be ironic to be in a vampire movie and not be a vampire.”

A film buff himself, he adds, “When I read the script, I thought it was great. The genre is handled in a way that’s clever and new.”

Gutierrez comments, “I think it was really fun for Manson to play somebody that is not one of the weirdoes of the movie—he’s actually a regular guy. I’m not sure if his fans will recognize him since he’s not in his full makeup, but he’s playing a character and he’s really good at playing a character.”

As for his look in the film, Manson reveals, “I had just finished my tour in Russia and had grown a beard, so when I called the production and told them, they were very excited because it would be something different. Plus, I wanted to be something different, not what people expect. I take off the lipstick, too.”

Regarding the existence of vampires, Manson smirks, “Do I believe in vampires? Maybe not the fangs so much, but there are vampires out there… They’re called lawyers and managers!”

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“RISE” RISES TO THE OCCASION

Carla Gugino who plays ‘Eve,’ a member of the vicious cult, suggests, “I think this is an incredibly entertaining movie. It’s sexy, it’s thrilling and there is also a lot of pathos. There’s guilt and redemption—some very major issues in life are in this movie.”

Michael Chiklis proposes, “Horror films and thrillers will always be a popular genre because it has to do with human nature—especially for the youth—since it’s about facing your fears—that’s something that’s part of being a human being.”

As a non-linear tale, Director Sebastian Gutierrez promises, “The pace of the movie is very fast-moving—all sorts of things happen. And because it’s out of order, it’s sort of nightmarish. Sadie has these claustrophobic moments that she keeps coming back to and we understand where the story is going, but it doesn’t start at the beginning—it keeps going all over the place.”

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