| The Bunker is a psychological thriller/horror film which revolves
around the kidnap of a congressman's daughter. Julia, better
known as Jewel to her friends and family, is a teenage runaway
who is unwilling to live within the rules and boundaries set
by her parents. She has run away once before, and her father's
connections have kept that quiet. This time, however, an election
cycle is about to begin and the scandal of a runaway daughter
has congressman Robert Jennings desperate. Desperate enough
to have half the NYPD out quietly looking for his daughter,
and desperate enough to pay privately to have her found and
brought back home. The problem for those looking for her, though,
is that she is no longer on the streets, and is instead imprisoned
in an underground bunker, having been kidnapped by a sadisticc
serial murderer. Jewel knows exactly how much longer she has
left to live, but will it be long enough for anybody to find
her?
Backstory
In early 2001, while friend, fellow comic book stalwart and
director Hart D. Fisher was talking about moving out of comic
books and full-time into filmmaking, Joe Monks was also toying
with the idea. He had a few ideas for shorts, including a
sketchy one about a congressman's wild child daughter being
kidnapped off the streets while her father pulled out all
the stops to find her before she turned his reelection campaign
into a scandal. So began the formation of The Bunker--destined
not to be Monks' first screenplay put into production, but
his second.
During 2001 and early 2002, while Monks fought a losing battle
with diabetic retinopathy (it would eventually blind the comic
book author and would-be filmmaker), Monks returned on and
off to the story, adding details; fleshing out the characters;
developing the plot line, while trying to keep his day job
between invasive eye surgeries and lengthy recovery periods.
By April of 2002, when Monks both lost his job and his failing
eyesight, the film project had been entirely shifted to the
back burner. Monks shifted gears to focus his energies on
a long-delayed horror anthology of short stories, Stuff Out'a
My Head, which he had been discussing with legendary comic
book illustrator Bernie Wrightson, a frequent Stephen King
collaborator. In December of 2002, Stuff Out'a My Head was
released.
In early 2003, Monks got a late-night call from Fisher, with
Fisher asking the author to throw together some synopsis for
short films. Fisher had an investor from Japan seeking to
make a television pilot for the Asian market, and was soliciting
ideas. Among the concepts pitched was the short story, Chance
Meeting, from the Stuff Out'a My Head anthology. The investors,
Bunkasha Publishing and DK Publishing bit, and Chance Meeting
was green-lighted for production.
By the time Chance Meeting--penned by Monks and polished
by Fisher--screened at the New York City Film Festival in
October, 2003, Monks was again toying with "that kidnap
story,"while also juggling duties on writing and publishing
the new Zacherley's Midnite Terrors comic and editing the
critically acclaimed anthology Sex Crimes. "That kidnap
story" (there was never a working title until the script
was finished)finally stood front and center. With one film
credit in the bank, Monks was busy writing something else
Fisher could direct, the sooner the better to capitalize on
the positive reviews garnered at the NYC Horror Film Festival.
In 2004, after the investors had made the decision to market
the Chance Meeting property as a direct-market DVD instead
of a TV pilot, Monks and Fisher, who retained worldwide rights,
decided to add a wraparound sequence and market the property
under the title: Flowers on the Razorwire, which had been
a horror comic book anthology Fisher had published in the
1990s. The goal was to create a Tales From The Crypt style
horror anthology for a cable television network looking to
cash in on the rising popularity of horror. Monks, who had
missed the opportunity to cameo in the short as a blind character
due to conflicts in his convention schedule and Fisher's shooting
schedule, was cast by Fisher to star in the wraparound--playing
a sighted character. By July, the first Flowers on the Razorwire
DVDs hit specialty video and comic book shops around the country,
and Monks was already looking ahead, to finishing the script
for his next short.
With Fisher's film editing business picking up steam and
the director's sights on another feature and some music videos,
the idea of directing the new short himself began to gain
traction. After researching it, Monks could find no account
of a blind director, even after doing some fact-checking with
the vaunted Hollywood Reporter. Handed a deck of 52 blind
cards and some jokers by life, Monks was determined to play
some. In late 2004 the first draft of the script was complete,
and Monks began the planning to make The Bunker a reality.
With the mini DV revolution in full swing, and with the
expensive experience of having shot on 16mm film (the wraparound
for
the first F.o.t.R.) fresh in mind, Monks became enamored
with the ability to shoot 24P footage--digital video that
had film
look--at a reasonable price. By April of 2005, he had settled
on the Panasonic DVX100a camera, and the first solid investment
towards producing The Bunker was made.With the new camera
and an Audio Technica AT835b boom mic in hand, Monks shot
a web promo commercial at the April Chiller Theatre Expo
featuring
Zacherley, The Cool Ghoul, for the comic book that bears
his name, with the legendary horror host from the 50s, 60s
and
70s introducing illustrated horror tales in this new incarnation.
The Bunker was shot in Miami (August '05), New Jersey (Jan. '06) and Los Angeles (Feb '06).
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