KENT, Ohio — It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for some young, local filmmakers, and one they want to share with other film enthusiasts.
Director and producer Brandon Lazenko and co-writer and producer Shelby Wyant got the go-ahead from the king of horror himself to lead production on “October Roses,” a 40-minute film adapted from Stephen King’s short story “Nona.”
The Kent residents also count among their team two of the biggest names in horror-movie special effects — executive producers Robert Kurtzman and his wife Marcy King.
“This opportunity is amazing,” Wyant said. “Being able to not only work on the Stephen King project, but also work with Kurtzman. We're beyond thrilled to do this.”
Kurtzman, who hails from Crestline, Ohio, is known for projects that include “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Haunting of Hill House” and King's “Doctor Sleep.” Among King’s work is the movie “Gerald’s Game,” adapted from a King novel, and “Ma,” starring Octavia Spencer.
Lazenko and Wyant, who refer to themselves as “horror super fans,” learned of the opportunity to adapt a King story last summer while reading social-media comments during promotion of King’s “Lisey’s Story” on Apple TV.
Lazenko, a Kent State University film-school graduate, had just wrapped up directing the award-winning film, “A Serpent by the Nest,” and was looking for another project.
The social-media comments led the pair to King’s Dollar Baby program, where film students can submit an application to adapt a King story they choose from a published list. If they are accepted, among the contract stipulations, King must receive a DVD of the finished film.
“It’s guaranteed eyes,” Lazenko said. “They could make or break you.”
With about 25 titles available, Lazenko and Wyant spent hours going through every offering to choose exactly the right story, they said. They decided on “Nona” and applied.
Despite the warning on the Dollar Baby site that it could take weeks to hear back, they received a response from King’s camp within 48-hours that they had been approved to buy the rights to “Nona” for $1.
“We felt like ‘Nona’ was the one that we could film in northeast Ohio, and it would be the most transferable,” Wyant said. “We also just really liked the characters and we kind of had an actor in mind that we wanted to work with. It seemed like everything perfectly fit with ‘Nona.’”
The pair also had the makeup and special-effects styles of Kurzman and King in mind when choosing the title to adapt, they said, but they had not yet approached the iconic couple.
“It was really important to Brandon that he cold-called on Friday the 13th,” Wyant said. “He thought that a horror lover might appreciate that connection.”
Friday the 13th fell in May, so Lazenko took the chance.
“I just picked up the phone and called, and at first, you know, they were a little wary about the project,” he said. “But after I expressed how passionate I was and how excited I was they loved the energy and they wanted to be a part of it.”
Lazenko and Wyant have been working with Kurzman and King for the past three months, they said. They’ve been working on the script since last summer and production is scheduled to begin in mid-August.
The story is about a down-on-his-luck professor who is hitchhiking around Maine and meets a beautiful woman.
“He kind of gets wrapped up in her web and it ends up being pretty gruesome,” Wyant said.
It’s been important to Lazenko that the project be opened to others interested in filmmaking, he said.
King’s “Shawshank Redemption” was shot in Mansfield, where “October Roses” will also be filmed, and many people who played extras in the earlier film have expressed interest in the current project, Lazenko said.
“It would be kind of full circle for them,” he said.
As a Kent State student, Lazenko took part in a filmmaking program in which students produced a feature-length film that was distributed to every Family Video store in North America, but that experience is no longer offered, he said.
He would like production of “October Roses” to help others gain similar industry experience.
“I just wanted to give students an opportunity to work on something really cool like I had an opportunity to work on when I was in college,” he said. “
Wyant said she closely monitors social media and is quick to respond to those who send emails to the team.
The team has been fundraising since last year to pay for the essentials needed to get the project done right, Lazenko said. In addition to several fundraising events, the group has been running a crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark that’s wrapping up this week.
A link will be available on the October Roses website this week for those who wish to support the work and attend special events to meet the filmmakers and cast.
Under the Dollar Baby contract, the filmmakers can host live screenings of the film for its distribution, but they can’t publish it on social media, they said. They can distribute a link to show the film through a secure website, which they plan to offer to donors during the special events.
In addition to producing a film that pleases the story’s author, the “October Roses” team wants this project to be something the broader community is proud of, they said.
“This isn't a project that I would like to say, you know, ‘this is my film, this is my project,’” Lazenko said. “This is something that I'm trying to share with everybody so that everybody can take a little piece of this away.”
