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Philadelphia, PA<\/b>, March 22, 2004 – RKO Pictures<\/b> has teamed with Philadelphia<\/b>-area natives Joe Nicolo<\/b> (Executive Producer), Carl Mazzocone<\/b> (Co-Producer), Dina Merrill<\/b>, and Philadelphia<\/b>\u2019s favorite son Sylvester Stallone<\/b>, to bring some brotherly love-card shark style-to the Philadelphia Film Festival<\/b> with the premiere of SHADE<\/b>. A gritty poker picture about grifters<\/b> and card mechanics<\/b> in the shadowy world of the L.A.<\/b> and Las Vegas<\/b> underground, SHADE<\/b>\u2019s ensemble cast includes Stuart Townsend<\/b> (Queen of the Damned), Gabriel Byrne<\/b> (The Usual Suspects), Thandie Newton<\/b> (Mission Impossible 2), Jamie Foxx<\/b> (Any Given Sunday), Melanie Griffith<\/b> (Working Girl), Hal Holbrook<\/b> (Magnum Force), Patrick Bauchau<\/b> (Carnivale) and Sylvester Stallone <\/b>(Rocky, Copland). The ultra high-stakes card game thriller has been selected as the opening night film at The Philadelphia Film Festival<\/b> on April 8th<\/b>. SHADE<\/b> is an RKO Pictures Production<\/b> in association with Merv Griffin Entertainment<\/b>, Hammond Entertainment<\/b>, Judgment Pictures<\/b> and Cobalt Media Group<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Hammond Entertainment<\/b> brought Nicolo<\/b> into the project after Hammond<\/b> optioned SHADE<\/b> from Merv Griffin Productions<\/b>. RKO Pictures<\/b> then joined the project as a financier, producer<\/b> and distributor<\/b>. The films other producers include Ted Hartley, Merv Griffin, Chris Hammond<\/b> and David Schnepp<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The film is directed by first-time director<\/b>, Damian Nieman<\/b>, who also wrote the script. Nieman<\/b>, a former card mechanic <\/b>and poker player<\/b>, knows this world first-hand having honed his skills at the famous Magic Castle<\/b> in Los Angeles<\/b>.<\/p>\n
This is the first feature film for Nicolo<\/b>, the former president and owner of Philadelphia<\/b>-based Ruffhouse \/Columbia Records<\/b>. At Ruffhouse<\/b>, he was responsible for launching the careers of Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Cypress Hill, Wyclef Jean<\/b>, and Kris\/Kross<\/b>. During his 10 years at Columbia Records<\/b>, Nicolo<\/b> also produced Billy Joel<\/b>\u2019s Grammy <\/b>nominated album \u201cRiver Of Dreams\u201d<\/b> and worked with such musical icons<\/b> as James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Aerosmith<\/b> and The Rolling Stones<\/b>. In the spring of 2000, Nicolo<\/b> sold Ruffhouse Records<\/b> to Sony <\/b>and started Judgment Pictures<\/b> in Conshohocken<\/b>.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re excited to share this film with our family and friends,\u201d said Nicolo<\/b>. \u201cHow great to be recognized in your home town. I guess I was very fortunate because I had a great, great cast and production crew on this film. I think the quality of the movie speaks for itself\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carl Mazzocone<\/b> is a 21-year veteran of the film business and is President of Main Line Pictures<\/b>. He most recently produced Dumb & Dumberer <\/b>as well as the controversial Julian Sands<\/b> film, Boxing Helena<\/b>.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love SHADE<\/b> and had a great time working on the film,\u201d said Mazzocone<\/b>. \u201cEvery low-budget production is a challenge, especially when working with big stars; yet this film captured something special from the start. The material attracted an exceptional cast and crew–probably the best I\u2019ve ever worked with. It\u2019s a rare experience when 150 cast and crew members come together on a picture, endure long stressful hours of tedious work and in the process become as close as a family. I give Joe Nicolo<\/b> a lot of credit for that. First off, it takes a lot of courage to finance an independent movie. Joe openly placed his trust in us all, which filters down and empowers everyone to do their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABOUT RKO<\/b>. RKO<\/b> is the oldest continuously operated entertainment company in the world, dating back to 1882, and boasting a film and script library of over 1,100 titles. Known for developing, producing, and distributing feature film and television programs<\/b> for worldwide consumption, the RKO<\/b> brand with its world-renowned \u201cglobe and radio tower\u201d logo is being expanded into an array of new areas. RKO<\/b> recently produced Never Gonna Dance<\/b>, a Broadway musical<\/b> stage adaptation of the 1936 Fred Astaire<\/b> and Ginger Rogers<\/b> film, Swing Time<\/b>. The Company also has a number of projects under development with other studios, Suspicion<\/b> (Dimension<\/b>), Monkey\u2019s Paw<\/b> (Dreamworks<\/b>) and Every Girl Should be Married<\/b> (Paramount<\/b>). SHADE<\/b> opens in select cities nationwide on May 7.<\/p>\n
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– Craig Zablo<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philadelphia, PA, March 22, 2004 – RKO Pictures has teamed with Philadelphia-area natives Joe Nicolo (Executive Producer), Carl Mazzocone (Co-Producer), Dina Merrill, and Philadelphia\u2019s favorite son Sylvester Stallone, to bring some brotherly love-card shark style-to the Philadelphia Film Festival with the premiere of SHADE. A gritty poker picture about grifters and card mechanics in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,20,28,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-45","category-celebs","category-honors","category-shade"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3r2Pe-2oW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9235,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9234\/revisions\/9235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}