Nothing Special

_____________________________________________________

Louise, a 25-year-old underwriter, staves off the boredom of insurance speak in her imagined Oprah Winfrey interviews while driving home in celebrity-infested Los Angeles, underscoring both her latent ambition and the cracks in her self-confidence as she faces the difficulties of caring for her mentally ill mother, May. Louise’s mother provides a darkly comic counterpoint, as she becomes threatened by Catherine, Louise’s self-possessed boss. Catherine admires Louise’s trailblazing approach, watching with pride as she faces down arrogant movie moguls and charms the old money board of directors without a hint of vanity. But Catherine is suddenly taken ill and reaches out to her protégée, Louise, as a potential business heir, pushing her up the rungs of the corporate ladder even as May seems to hold her daughter down. The comic and heart-felt struggle that lies at the root of this unconventional love triangle culminates in a café brawl with May landing a fist to Catherine’s eye! But thanks to Louise’s plucky resilience and her gigantic dreaming heart these comic/tragic circumstances somehow come up on the other side of joy -- just over the softly lit horizon of serendipity.

Angela Garcia Combs (Writer/Director/Producer) is a Graduate of UCLA’s TFT, an award-winning writer and adjunct professor of film.

Sascha Schneider (Producer) is a veteran award-winning producer of such shows as Hill Street Blues, Commander in Chief, Dirt and many other features and documentaries.

Morgan Susser (Director of Photography) is known for his ability to capture rich visual detail in real environments, and his ability to capture those images under highly pressurized circumstances. His work can be viewed at www.morgansusser.com

Karen Black (May) is an Academy Award nominated actress and a Golden Globe winner for “Five Easy Pieces” and “The Great Gatsby.” She starred in Alfred Hitchcock's last film, “Family Plot.” Her work with Robert Altman on “Nashville” led to a Grammy Award nomination. Black’s broad range and nuanced performances are the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Barbara Bain (Catherine) is best known for her work in the TV series “Mission Impossible” as "Cinnamon Carter" and became the first actress in the history of TV to receive three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Dramatic Actress. Bain followed with the role of "Dr. Helena Russell" in the classic, syndicated science fiction TV series “Space: 1999” and a groundbreaking career in film and stage.

Julia Garcia Combs (Louise) was introduced in Henry Jaglom’s “Going Shopping” and recently completed filming on “The Starry Sky Above Me” in Washington D.C., after graduating from Boston University with a BFA in Theatre.

Production Details

A letter of intent for theatrical distribution of “Nothing Special” has already been secured from Rainbow Releasing, a well-known distribution company that releases highly respected Indy art house films, owned by Henry Jaglom. Henry Jaglom is one of the most renowned and longstanding Indy directors/distributors.

We are in pre-production and upon funding will go into production, and begin shooting in the summer of 2009. Our film will be previewed in the fall, and begin the festival circuit immediately thereafter.

Yellow Wallpaper Productions envisions elegant, captivating, funny and beautiful mainstream films that will have wide audience appeal for both men and women, to address the lack of female perspective films in the market place.

Yellow Wallpaper Productions recognizes a serious miscalculation of the market appetite for female envisioned drama. The lopsided approach to story-telling as it relates to funding and support is an unacceptable reality that Yellow Wallpaper Productions seeks to affect - - relegating all things female to innumerable “chick flicks” or polarizing clichés of feminist concerns, while the melodrama of male-centered war stories, tales of self discovery or heroism are praised, and viewed as somehow more worthy of serious criticism, funding and marketing.

Yellow Wallpaper Productions is interested in seriously funny, important, soul searching stories that are aided by female voices, about men and women and illuminate greater questions about our humanity and the future of our species. We intend to bring to life the witty and complicated tales of women and men who struggle for identity in the modern era. We will examine a plethora of rich and complicated issues amidst redefined sexual freedoms and social roles, while our characters search for connection and learn to navigate ever-changing socio-economic, political and familial structures. Whether we address those concerns in drama, comedy or a combination of genres with men or women as the central figures in the story is of less concern than giving voice to intelligent, thoughtful and complicated stories reflecting and even shaping the zeitgeist with the enhancement of the female perspective.