Producers

Redhill Town Films is located in Washington, DC. We have partnered with Providence Park Productions out of Atlanta, GA, to make, in the summer of 2023, our short proof-of-concept pilot that is available upon request. We are actively seeking a producer for season one of this epic adventure story.

Why is this Project unique?

There are several other films about the Revolutionary War. Here’s the lineup by date:

• 1985 - “Revolution” starring a very young Al Pacino

• 2000 - “The Patriot” starring Mel Gibson

• 2008 - “John Adams” based on David McCullough’s work

• 2014-17 - “Turn” cataloging the spy network

• 2015 - “Sons of Liberty” took hold of the historic record very liberally

All of these examples have something to offer, but our desire is to work very closely within the historical record. The 1985 film is just not very good. “The Patriot” made a commercial splash because of its star power and quick action. It did a lot right in the storytelling, but unfortunately, most of the story is made up. I am partial to “John Adams” since David McCullough was so kind to our ongoing work before he died in 2022. The nature of the Adams project, however, is to follow John Adams from some beginning point (The Boston Massacre in the series) up through his renewed correspondence with Thomas Jefferson and then his death. In the telling from Adam’s point of view, we gain a great perspective but lose a lot of the period’s comings and goings. “Turn” is great as it relates to spies who are prominent in the passing of information, but huge assumptions are made and the larger picture is hardly ever presented or discussed. Finally, I’ll point out “Sons of Liberty” which had modest success. Unfortunately, the writer and director decided to turn the people who started the revolution into a group of superheroes who have little dimension.

“An Appeal To Heaven” is different from the examples above and I think its potential is greater. Why? The Revolutionary War period is a time of epic adventure. It’s a time when good country people are invaded by the mightiest empire in the world, with tentacles that seem to grow continuously onto every continent. But they face a disruption in the American Colonies. But how do rise up and defeat an empire and drive them away from your family, your town, your coast? From stage left, so to speak, comes an unlikely group of rebels. Their most valued concern is reminiscent of why Puritans and other faith groups came to the New World 150 years earlier: to be free to worship and to live as their conscience guides them. Yes, taxes and representation and quartering troops and restrictions to movement… and all the steps in between certainly contribute to this greatest concern.

In this larger narrative, the people matter. The first season of the series begins well before the 1775 clash and Lexington and Concord. It explores the complex and alluring lives of Sons of Liberty leader Sam Adams, Doctor Joseph Warren, blacksmith Paul Revere, Doctor Benjamin Church (the traitor), and newspaperman Issac Thomas, among others. What happens in the ten years before to prompt most of the colonists to abandon the protection and strength of their British identity and go a different way? What was their appeal to the world? What was their appeal to heaven?

In short, our project is a close historic take on the times. There is so much of interest that very little needs to be fabricated and much more needs to be told. These are true tales of what is now the most powerful nation in the world. These are its origin stories, the true legends that haven’t had room on the screen, at least, to become lore in the imagination of Americans writ large. We hope to change that.