Distributed by INDICAN PICTURES*

Starring

Kristanna Loken, Joe Hall, Danielle Agnello, David J. O’Donnell, George Castañeda and Kate del Castillo

in

“LIME SALTED LOVE”

 

PRODUCTION NOTES:

The idea of writing a script started out as a phone call between Danielle Agnello and Joe Hall. Agnello was calling from the parking lot of her acting teacher’s studio which happened to be her home at the time. Agnello had just been through a catastrophic car accident that resulted in a coma, multiple hospitalizations and psychiatric wards. The psych wards were a horrifying experience and malpractice at best. The hospitals prescribed a myriad of medicines for Post Traumatic Stress causing Agnello to have an adverse reaction and severe pharmaceutical drug induced hallucinations. When the medicines started to make Agnello violently ill, she started purging her system of the pharmaceuticals and she abruptly snapped out of it and was discharged. The writing of the script was instrumental in keeping Agnello alive and reinstating her as a functional member of society. Agnello was compelled to dedicate her life to helping people and using art as medium to do so was the next step. Joe Hall agreed and the two of them began their collaboration and started writing immediately, communicating daily until Hall moved back to Los Angeles a month before shooting Lime Salted Love.

Hall and Agnello met two years prior to their collaboration of Lime Salted Love in an acting class with teacher Silvana Gallardo. Hall moved back to Ohio to finish school and Agnello stayed in L.A. and continued to study with Gallardo. This acting class would prove to be a fruitful source for Lime Salted Love’s cast, as it helped to supply Hall and Agnello with most of the film’s main characters. Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and Agnello first established a working relationship when Loken won Best Actress In A Short Film for Agnello’s Worn Like A Tattoo (Agnello’s first short film). After working with Agnello on Tattoo, Loken then agreed to meet with Agnello in regards to the supporting role of Zephyr in Lime Salted Love. Loken read the script, believed in it and signed on. Agnello then cast David J. O’Donnell, George Castañeda, Kate del Castillo (Under the Same Moon) and Billy Drago (The Untouchables). After the key cast members had attached themselves, Agnello began submitting the script to various cinematographers and receiving their reels in the mail. Not finding what she was looking for, Agnello submitted the script to Michael Goi (Vice President of the ASC) and received a phone call from him two days later. He said, "I read the script, in fact I read it twice, and I want to shoot it." Agnello said, "That's great, but we have no money yet." He said, "I don't care." He ended up watching Worn Like A Tattoo and he then proceeded to take the script to Panavision, granting Agnello the New Filmmaker’s Award. Due to a scheduling conflict, Michael Goi ended up not being able to shoot Lime Salted Love. He did, however, oversee the project as one of the executive producers. Goi’s tremendous belief in Lime Salted Love was a strong driving-force for the film’s production.

After winning the Panavision award and receiving financing from investors, Agnello and Hall set a date for the shoot (June 5). Hall packed up his car and drove from Ohio to L.A., arriving in May. Hall and Agnello would drive around town scouring and securing locations and reviewing resumes for crew. Right before shooting Hall and Agnello finally found cinematographer Mathew Rudenberg to shoot Lime Salted Love.

During the shoot, Hall and Agnello were living in a tiny room in a tiny house all the way in the valley (Winnetka). Hall was sleeping on a cot and Agnello was sleeping on a small mattress, though sleep was a luxury barely afforded to them. A couple of times locations were secured only a day prior to the shoot. With a small, amazing team that worked very hard, the film was shot and wrapped in 22 days.

The editing process was a grueling labor of love and Agnello went through several editors before she found the gifted Kinga Orlikowska. Orlikowska’s understanding of the project made the editing process yield the film they intended to create. Lime Salted Love’s score, composed by John Langdon, played an important role in matching the mood of the film and in the process of editing it into its final form.

The film’s premiere screening was in Canada, the East coast premiere was in New York and the west coast premiere was in Hollywood, California at Laemmle’s Sunset 5. The West coast premiere was extraordinary-- it oversold by over 100 tickets, with eager ticketholders lining up in the hallway to try to get in. The film was moved to the theater’s largest screen, with a larger seating capacity in order to accommodate all of the people who came to see it. Due to this overwhelming response, a second screening was held within the same week. The film garnered 3 awards at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, honoring Best Directorial Debut, Best Art house Feature and Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film (Kristanna Loken). The film will be released in Japan in June 2009 and now has worldwide distribution with Indican pictures.

 

 

BIOS:

 

Danielle Agnello (Director/Writer/Producer/Actress)

Danielle Agnello’s career in the arts began when she moved to Los Angeles in 2003 and began acting with teacher Silvana Gallardo. Agnello had always been recognized for her writing. Even as a child, her work was recognized and heralded by teachers in school and entered into writing competitions. Her poetry would be published in various magazines and printed publications. Upon auditioning for various acting roles, Agnello became frustrated with the lack of quality material available. Agnello decided to marry her love of writing with acting in her first short film Worn Like A Tattoo. Kristanna Loken won Best Actress in a short film for Agnello’s short film and would later revisit their working relationship in Agnello’s Lime Salted Love. Agnello won the Panavision New Filmmaker’s Award which helped to kick start the production of her debut, award-winning feature length film Lime Salted Love. Agnello wrote, co-starred, directed, and produced Lime Salted Love with Joe Hall. The film’s premiere screening was in Canada, the East coast premiere was in New York and the west coast premiere was in Hollywood, California at Laemmle’s Sunset 5. The West coast premiere was extraordinary-- it oversold by over 100 tickets, with eager ticketholders lining up in the hallway to try to get in. The film was moved to the theater’s largest screen, with a larger seating capacity in order to accommodate all of the people who came to see it. Due to this overwhelming response, a second screening was held within the same week. The film garnered 3 awards at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, honoring Best Directorial Debut, Best Art house Feature and Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film (Kristanna Loken). The film will be released in Japan in June 2009 and now has worldwide distribution with Indican pictures.

Twice a week Agnello attends class with The Paperhat Group, based in Hollywood, California. “The Paperhat Group is a theatre group and an acting class that I co-founded with [Lime Salted Love’s] George Casta ñ eda. We use ‘The Approach,’ which is a Stanislavski and Strasberg derived method. With a production side, George Casta ñ eda and I founded it a year ago and have had over a hundred different actors that have called this studio home. Watching them work has inspired me as an actress and director. It is very purposeful.”

Agnello’s next feature is based on an original screenplay by George Castañeda called “Misogyny's Whore”.

 

Joe Hall (Director/Writer/Producer/Actor)

At seven years of age he picked up his dad’s Super 8mm camera, shot his first short film, and the rest is history. Joe Hall has been making films ever since. By the time he had completed high school, he had shot over a dozen short films in which he both acted and directed in addition to handling all aspects of production -- honing some of the most fundamental skills by simple trial and error.

Shortly after high school he moved to Los Angeles where he joined the acting class of the well-respected Silvana Gallardo. Here he met Danielle Agnello, Billy Drago, Kristanna Loken, and a network of other talented actors. Facing increased artistic frustration with the professional filmmaking industry, he returned to the independent productions he had created before moving to Los Angeles. He produced a series of four short films involving Danielle Agnello and culminating in the short film “Somewhere in the Middle” starring Billy Drago.

Following his efforts in Los Angeles, Hall returned to Miami University (Ohio) to complete his college education Majoring in Marketing with an emphasis in. While at school he continued to make short films and experimented in commercial and documentary work, but it was the business and entrepreneurial addition to his skill set that would aid him so well in his next venture.

Unable to direct Agnello’s short film “Worn Like a Tattoo”, due to scheduling conflicts, Hall continued to entertain the idea of working with her on another project. A semester shy of graduation Hall was once again approached by Agnello with the idea of collaborating on a short film. Since he had already produced nearly two-dozen shorts, he had his mind set on something much more ambitious -- a feature film. It didn’t take much arm-twisting before Agnello was on board. Their plan consisted of emailing scenes and ideas back and forth followed by phone calls that sometimes lasted throughout the night. And that was how “Lime Salted Love” was born. After two months of constant back and forth interaction the script was completed with the help of Billy Drago.

Hall and Agnello pulled all the additional pieces together and began production only six months after the scriptwriting process had begun. “Lime Salted Love” would go on to win awards for Best Arthouse Feature and Best Directorial Debut at the New York Independent International Film and Video Festival.

Since that time Hall has continued working in production as a freelance camera operator with 20 th Century Fox and has had a hand in helping start several independent production companies. He has produced several short films and most recently completed the spec sitcom “Four’s a Crowd” that he created, produced, and in which he stars alongside “Lime Salted Love” actor David J. O’Donnell. Hall continues acting when time allows and is currently in pre-production on his next feature while he furthers his professional skill development with a graduate degree from the prestigious Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter.

 

 

Kristanna Loken (Executive Producer/Actress)

This Summer, Kristanna Loken will next star as ‘Hottessa” in NATIONAL LAMPOON’S: THE LEGEND OF AWESOMEST MAXIMUS, which follows in the long tradition of National Lampoon spoofs. This satire takes aim at “sword and sandals” movies of every era, with a special nod of the feathered helmet to historical epics such as the CGI-enhanced 300, Gladiator, Troy, Braveheart and Spartacus. The film also stars Sophie Monk (Click, Entourage), Rip Torn (Bee Movie, Dodgeball, Men in Black), Ian Ziering (Beverly Hills 90210) and features Will Sasso (Mad TV).

Loken also has upcoming “ Janjaweed,” an independent production shooting on location in Cape Town, South Africa. The film also stars Billy Zane, Edward Furlong, David O’Hara and Noah Danby, and is based on true events about the genocide that is currently taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan.

She most recently starred and executive produced the Sci-Fi Channel series superhero actioner “Painkiller Jane,” which was based on the eponymous comic book created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada.

Loken has guest starred on the 2007/2008 season of Showtime’s critically-acclaimed “The L-Word,” and she recently produced, and stars in the independent film “Lime Salted Love.” Her Sci Fi mini-series “Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King” premiered to positive reviews, one of them from the New York Times, and was the highest rated mini-series for the network to date.

She starred in the title role as ‘Rayne’ -- in the feature film adaptation of the highly popular video game of the same name “BloodRayne.” She appeared in a cameo role in “Dungeon Siege: In The Name of the King,” and alongside Jason Staham, Burt Reynolds, Claire Forlani and Matthew Lillard, among others.

Loken is best known starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as the dangerously beautiful ‘TX’ (Terminatrix) in the highly-successful franchise film “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” for Warner Bros. She also starred in the feature film “Kingdom in Twilight.”

Her additional television credits include recurring roles on “Philly” for Stephen Bochco, “Law & Order” and “Just Shoot Me,” among many others. She portrayed ‘Sarah’ on the well received Dick Wolf show “D.C.” and played ‘Taja’ in the television series “Mortal Kombat: Conquest.”

Raised on an Organic Fruit Farm in upstate New York, Loken she spent her time riding horses and studying dance. She currently resides in Los Angeles.

 

 

Michael Goi (Executive Producer)

Michael Goi has compiled over 40 credits, including films for cinema and television. Though a cinematographer by profession, he felt so strongly about Danielle Agnello, Joe Hall, and Billy Drago’s script for Lime Salted Love that he felt compelled to help the film any way he could.

Michael was nominated for an Emmy® in 2008 for My Name Is Earl, and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards for the telefilms The Fixer (1999) and Judas (2005). His credits also include the original pilot for Life On Mars and David E. Kelley’s series The Wedding Bells, and the feature films Witless Protection, The Dukes,Fingerprints, Red Water, What Matters Most, Funky Monkey, Welcome to Death Row, and the Emmy® Award-winning documentary Fired-Up: The Story of Public Housing in Chicago.

In the field of new media, Michael shot episodes of the web series In The Motherhood with Jenny McCarthy, Leah Remini and Chelsea Handler, which has been optioned by ABC to be a network series. Also, Web Therapy starring Lisa Kudrow, a comedy series for the Lexus Internet Channel, has been picked up for a second season.

Michael recently wrote and directed the factual drama Megan Is Missing, which concerns two young girls’ encounter with an internet predator. The film was profiled in the November 2008 issue of American Cinematographer Magazine, and is currently on the film festival circuit.

Michael Goi speaks about the craft of cinematography at many seminars, including appearances at the American Film Market (AFM), American Film Institute (AFI), USC, and the Maine Photographic Workshop. He is Vice President of the American Society of Cinematographers and serves on the Board Of Governors of the ASC, and is a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences (AMPAS) as well as the Television Academy Of Arts And Sciences (ATAS), and serves on the National Executive Board of the International Cinematographers Guild Local 600.

 

 

Kate del Castillo (Actress)

Kate del Castillo debuted as a child actress, but it wasn’t until the enormously successful telenovela Muchachitas that she became a full-fledged star in Mexico. She went on to become the leading ingénue of nine telenovelas, including Ramona and La Mentira taking them to the top of the Nielsen charts every time. Her telenovelas have aired multiple times in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Kate starred as the young mom in Fox Searchlight/Weinstein’s Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna), which had the highest opening ever for a Spanish speaking movie in the US. Her feature film Julia with Tilda Swinton premiered at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival and is set to open in the US in 2009.

Kate is known for her wide range of roles, starring in the recently completed Down for Life, Black Pimpernel, and Bad Guys. Her film credits also include a powerful supporting role in the Roland Emmerich-produced Trade, sharing the screen with Kevin Kline and a cameo in Bordertown as Antonio Banderas’ long-suffering wife.

Kate received various accolades for her critically acclaimed performance as a Bolivian dancer in American Visa including “Best Actress” awards in film festivals in Spain and Brazil, and a “Best Actress” nomination at the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s equivalent to the Oscars. In the United States, the movie premiered at last year’s AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, to a sold-out crowd.

In February 2008, Kate received the “Outstanding Performance in a Motion Picture”award for her performances in Trade and Under the Same Moon by the National Hispanic Media under the umbrella of the National Latino Media Council. In August 2008, she won the Imagen “Best Actress” award for Under the Same Moon.

Kate has graced the covers of the top Spanish-language magazines, and was People en Español’s 2007 cover Actress of the Year, as well as one of their “Most Beautiful People.” She has been on several of their best dressed lists including No.1 at the recent Alma Awards on ABC, where she was a presenter. Kate has been a frequent guest on Univision’s top-rated Christina and Don Francisco shows as well as a presenter on the Latin Grammys and Premios Lo Nuestro. She has been the host of Fox Latin’s Sports Awards and Premios Juventud, and this year she won their unconventional “She Steals the Show” award in the film category, a popularity vote chosen by fans voting on the internet.

Kate was the voice of Sally Carrera, in the Spanish version of Pixar/Disney’s CARS. On Ricky Martin’s personal invitation, she co-starred with him in one of his music videos as his girlfriend. She made her crossover debut on television in the US in the Golden Globe nominated PBS series American Family alongside Edward James Olmos.

Kate won the “Best Actress” award in February 2009 from the theatre critics in Mexico for her sold-out 8 week theatre run in the 2 character play Blackbird (Pájaro Negro) in Mexico City. She is currently developing a project for television, which she hopes will showcase her love of extreme sports. Last year she published in Mexico her first novel called “Tuya” based on her screenplay, and it’s now in its third printing.