Powerful Drama about Cults Readied for the Big Screen

Creative Team of Richmond Riedel, Eric Shapiro and Rhoda Jordan Discuss Upcoming Film “The Devoted” with Dawna Lee Heising on MoreHorror.com

MoreHorror.com has today announced, the availability of a recent discussion with the creative team intent on bringing “The Devoted” to the Big Screen.  In the new video segment Dawna Lee Heising questions the team about the reason they chose to “The Devoted,” the story’s plot, the estimated opening date and the goals of filmmaker Richmond Riedel, his producing partner Thom Michael Mulligan and writers Eric Shapiro and Rhoda Jordan. THE DEVOTED was written by Eric Shapiro and Rhoda Jordan. Shapiro and Jordan co-produced the film RULE OF THREE, and which, like TARGET PRACTICE, was released in 2010 by Big Screen Entertainment Group.  Earlier this month, Ravenous Shadows, the new line of genre fiction helmed by NY Times Bestselling Author John Skipp, released a novel version of THE DEVOTED, written by Eric Shapiro. Riedel and his producing partner Thom Michael Mulligan are presently constructing a budget for the motion picture, with the hope of readying it for cameras within the coming year. In the meantime, the eBook release of THE DEVOTED novel -- which has already earned praise from Jack Ketchum, Stephen Graham Jones, Eric S. Brown, and many others -- can be purchased anywhere books are sold.

THE DEVOTED chronicles the last day in the life of a fictional suicide cult. When one of the cult members begins to have second thoughts, the balance of power becomes disrupted, and as the group's final ritual grows near, the tension escalates.  “The Devoted” surrounds a doomsday cult’s final day. It’s a narrative that switches perspectives between a mentally ill young man named Matthew, and various news stories and interviews all which help fill in background on the cult. Shapiro creates a wonderfully conflicted main character in Matthew, who runs the gamut from unlikeable, to awkward, to disturbing and then sympathetic. Shapiro entices the reader by making his characters real. Here, the horror doesn’t come from monsters; it comes from the twisted mind of man.

Eric Shapiro graduated from Boston's Emerson College. Collected novels and short fiction from Eric Shapiro are compiled in a volume titled "Stories for the End of the World," released by Permuted Press in October 2010.  Other short fiction by Eric Shapiro appeared in "Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead" (2009) and "Werewolves and Shape Shifters: Encounters with the Beasts Within" (2010), both edited by John Skipp. A short essay about scary movies written by Shapiro appeared in Harper Collins' "The Book of Lists: Horror" (Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Nonfiction, 2008). The writer, producer, director and editor of “Target Practice”, Riedel is the author of another dozen screenplays, having also written the original screenplay for the Indie film Charades, starring C. Thomas Howell, Karen Black, Erika Eleniak, James Russo, Jack Scalia and James Wilder.  Riedel, a veteran Hollywood editor, shows his manifest chops in Target Practice with a relentless pace and astute storytelling. As an assistant editor, Richmond's feature credits include the movies "Fracture," "The Break-Up," "Friday Night Lights," "The Last Shot," "The Recruit," "Hart's War," "Pay It Forward," "Frequency," Michael Mann's "The Insider," "Deep Impact," "John Carpenter's Vampires," "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A.," "Blue Chips," and "Rudy."

About MoreHorror.com

The Founder and President of the premier horror film review site MoreHorror.com is Seth Metoyer, who is also the Producer and Co-owner of Dismal Productions with Bill Oberst Jr.  MoreHorror.com contributors include:  Shannon Hilson - Co-founder, Vice President and Senior Writer; Jason Lees - Senior Writer; Colleen Wanglund - Contributing Writer; Chris Wright - Contributing Writer; Marcey Papandrea - Contributing Writer; Jesse Miller - Contributing Writer; Michael Sieber - Contributing Writer; Jamie Zaccaria - Contributing Writer; Shelly Martinez – Event Correspondent/Hostess; and Dawna Lee Heising - Hollywood Correspondent