Coming in 2025! The best superhero movie ever made that’s set in Stockton, CA.
The Dark Crusader was a long time coming. The character itself was loosely created some twenty years ago with sporadic scenes/ideas coming throughout the years. It wasn’t until the pandemic of 2020 did I finally sit down and put something together, actually forming a PLOT out of these seemingly random episodes. In the uncertainty of that time, it was mostly a creative writing exercise.
Then in 2022, an old video of mine, “Taste the Biscuit” exploded on Tiktok and subsequently, all over the internet. It was a clip from my no-budget 2010 film, “Chickens In The Shadows.” That film got into zero festivals and was thrown onto YouTube to simply exist. Suddenly, people were now watching that film and actually enjoying it! One reviewer called it “The YouTube generation’s Nashville.” This new found spotlight on my work inspired me to hone in “The Dark Crusader” and make the thing. My filmmaking had greatly improved since 2010 and I was eager to show the world I can do more and better!
I enlisted everyone I’ve ever worked with before and put together an 18 day shoot spread out between Sep.-Dec. 2023. It was a small tight crew consisting of Jeff Lapid (DP), Jon Ganzmann (Sound), Bailey Seif (AD/PA), Tim Morrill (Cam Op/Gaffer) and Kevin Nguyen (Cam OP). In front of camera, I mostly pulled from actors & friends I’d worked with before. This was supposed to be fun after all. After much back & forth, I decided to take on lead actor and directing duties. I’d done it before but never at this magnitude. A lot of trust was placed with the crew and together we made something special I think.
I consider “The Dark Crusader” to be my best most impressive work and I hope you will enjoy it.
