Cry_Wolf (2005)

Cry_Wolf is co-written and directed by Jeff Wadlow, the winner of the first Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival competition. Jeff wrote Cry_Wolf with the film’s producer Beau Bauman. Prior to entering the competition, Jeff and Beau attended the graduate school at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, where they made the short film The Tower of Babble (co-written and co-produced with Matt Stuecken, and with [uncredited] narration by Kevin Spacey), which qualified Jeff for the Chrysler contest. After surviving seven months of competition and beating out hundreds of other applicants, Jeff ultimately won the top prize – a million-dollar grant to finance his feature film directorial debut. The competition was produced by Hypnotic (The Bourne Identity, The O.C.), and jointly sponsored by Chrysler and Universal Studios.

The Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival consisted of multiple phases, including the creation of two new short films as well as the development and execution of a feature film script.

The first of the two new shorts had to be made as part of the “Extreme Filmmaking” phase of the competition, which found 10 semifinalists casting, shooting, editing, and premiering a film – all within 10 days during the Cannes International Film Festival. In addition, the Chrysler Crossfire and/or PT Cruiser Convertible cars had to make appearances in each short. Jeff’s finished project, Manual Labor, landed him among the 5 finalists who immediately entered a summer-long “boot camp” monitored by film industry mentors. Jeff counts himself as being fortunate enough to have been overseen by Charlie Lyons and Suzann Ellis of Beacon Pictures (Air Force One, Bring it On).

While finishing the screenplay with Beau, Jeff had to fashion a pitch with materials for his movie, including casting ideas and a poster. He also had to shoot a presentation piece for the proposed film, featuring dialogue and scenes from the first draft of the script. The completed piece helped sway the judging panel (which included Hypnotic co-founders [and Cry_Wolf executive producers] David Bartis and Doug Liman, as well as Chrysler’s Freeman Thomas).

For the production of the feature film, the competition sponsors were joined by additional supporters, including AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Efilm, Panavision, Technicolor, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Film Office. Universal’s Rogue Pictures label took distribution of the film, adding Cry_Wolf to its slate of high-quality suspense, action, thriller and urban entertainment features with mainstream appeal and franchise potential.

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