Independent Horror Movie Filmed in Cranston Premieres Next Weekend

Chad Verdi is a venture capitalist who has ventured into movies and is on a roll.   A red-carpet premier is scheduled for his film Inkubus on Saturday at the eighth-annual Rock and Shock, a music and horror film festival in Worcester, Mass. The movie will open at the Warwick Showcase on Oct. 28.

Directed by Rhode Island native Glen Ciano, Inkubus was filmed in Cranston and East Greenwich and stars Robert Englund, who played Freddy in Nightmare on Elm Street. Englund and the entire cast are scheduled to attend the premier.

The story line of Inkubus revolves around the unlucky officers on duty for the last shift of a closing police station when a demon walks in and confesses to a series of crime.

Verdi’s second film, Loosies, will be released in December. Directed by Michael Corrente and starring Peter Facinelli of Twilight. Facinelli’s role is a New York City pickpocket who poses as a Wall Street stockbroker to roam the city looking for marks. That role is turned upside down when he meets a girl and their one night stand results in a pregnancy.

A third Verdi production, Infected, is scheduled for release in 2012.  It details how members of a hunting club react when an infection causes residents of a quiet New England community to begin committing horrific acts.

Verdi says he got into the business of making movies for one reason: to make the story about his friend, Rhode Island world champion boxer Vinny Pazienza.  He bought the rights to the story and then set about learning the business.  He says he can’t make any mistakes with Pazienza’s story.

Pazienza, who won five world titles at lightweight, junior middleweight and super middleweight was told he would never walk again after he broke two vertebra and dislocated another in a car accident. Against doctor’s orders he returned to the gym and worked his way back to the ring.

“That’s the kind of story they make movies about," Verdi said. He recently returned from Los Angles and talks with what he describes as major directors, producers and actors.  He is going to work on the movie in 2012 and said he's confident it will be made.

Verdi Productions is described as a fully-funded production company which is redefining how films are made on the East Coast.

As a fully-funded production company, Verdi says he can work a lot quicker than traditional production companies. He has over $5 million dollars in the three films, but expects the Pazienza film will cost $15 or $20 million.

Including his offices in a former church on the East Greenwich Main Street, all the components of Verdi’s film company are based in Rhode Island, something he says has never been done. Some companies are headquartered in the state, but film elsewhere, and some companies come in to film scenes then leave. He says his approach is giving opportunity to a lot of local actors and it has been the opportunity of a lifetime for Ciano, who is a first-time director.

A lot of movies get made, but many don’t get seen.  Making the connections and sales that get a movie into a theater, plus the other distribution channels, doesn’t happen often. Verdi says to make three movies and sell them is a big deal. “Maybe not here in Rhode Island,” he says, “but Hollywood has recognized us, we’ve had 12 articles in Variety.”

Even with all the pieces seeming to fall into place, Verdi doesn’t know if his three movies will make any money. The total process takes two or three years to play out, but with more hard work and a little more luck he predicts it is possible he will be a huge success.

Screen Media, which bought Inkubus, and Robert Englund want Verdi Productions to make a prequel and a sequel, Verdi said. Right now the focus is on the story of Vinny Paz for 2012, but the Inkubus prequel is in the thinking stages for 2013.

For theater information and a showing near you, visit http://www.woodhavenfilms.com or visit http://www.movietickets.com.

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