Lincoln Movie with Technology Breakthrough Twist
Almost 30 years ago, Matt Stasior met Sal Litvak at Harvard the first week freshman year. They became fast friends as they rowed crew for 3 ½ years. After Harvard, Matt went to Bain and Company to work with Mitt Romney and Sal went to law school. After law school, Sal moved to LA to get his Masters in at the prestigious UCLA Film School. Matt was helping Microsoft Corporation grow from $200 million in sales to $4 billion.
It was then they formed a production company called Windfall Pictures. Matt co produced multiple short films of Sal’s including a Henry the VIII drama and a fun, slap stick, action short called Dick and Slick. Matt also starred in the film as Richard Head, which won the prestigious UCLA highest honors at the UCLA’s showcase event. It was then Sal, Sal’s wife Nina and Matt came together to start a Lincoln project.
After multiple revisions and excellent feedback from the studios, the project was turned down. Steven Spielberg had just announced in 2002 that he was going to do a Lincoln film.. This shut the project down, for then. Sal went on to write and direct When Do We Eat and Matt produced Love Lies Bleeding, a Jack the Ripper mystery starring Malcolm McDowell.
Years later as Spielberg was wrapping up the filming of Lincoln, Sal and Nina resurrected the project with a new twist. The background of each scene would all be actual background from the 1860s. When you watch the movie, you are actually watching where Lincoln ACTUALLY was, not a set to look like where he was. Sal invented an new cinematic style called CineCollage. First, the performances were filmed on a green screen stage. Then he used high resolution, glass-plate photographs from the Library of Congress to create the 3D environments our characters inhabit. This is the type of genius Matt saw in Sal 20 years ago.
Based on a true story. When Abraham Lincoln (Tom Amandes) is elected President, he brings only one friend to Washington: his banjo-playing, joke-telling former law partner and confidant, Ward Hill Lamon (Lea Coco). Lamon is also handy with a gun, and when the first assassination attempt occurs in 1861, Lamon appoints himself the President’s bodyguard.
From this unique perspective, Lamon witnesses every aspect of Lincoln’s fiery trial as Commander-in-Chief, from the constant military and political pressure, to the personal losses of friends and family members. Lamon soothes Lincoln’s tormented soul, saves him from repeated attempts on his life, and introduces him at the Gettysburg Address.
Lamon is not present on that fateful night at Ford’s Theater in 1865 because Lincoln sends him on a mission, yet it is Lamon who redefines that tragic event in a surprising and uplifting manner.
This visually unique film features sets created from actual Civil War photographs, using a new process called CineCollage, invented by director Salvador Litvak (When Do We Eat?). The film stars Penelope Ann Miller as Mary Todd Lincoln, Bruce Davison as William H. Seward, Creed Bratton as Senator Charles Sumner, Josh Stamberg as Salmon P. Chase and Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Mrs. Elizabeth Keckly.
Please visit Saving Lincoln to see the excellent reviews and where the next VIP Screening will be.
