The film is also scheduled for theatrical release in the following countries:

Germany - October 26
Spain - December [no date given]
Belgium - December 20
Switzerland - Nov. 16
Turkey - June, 2001
Brazil - Jan. 7
Singapore - January, 2001
Thailand - Oct. 31
Australia - Oct. 31
Poland - Straight to video - no date provided

No date for Japan as yet and no information for Canada. There seems to be some question as to who is distributing the movie in North America and whether it will go to theaters or television in Canada.

The good response that the movie have received in the UK is part of the reason that they expect it to go to theaters in these other countries. Everyone connected with the film is very disappointed that it didn't get a theatrical release in the US.




Cherry Falls, from USA Films, was shot near Richmond, Virginia. It is described in Daily Variety 3/4/99 as a film "about a killer who begins murdering virgins at Cherry Falls High School, and how the town deals with him after he is identified." Michael plays Sheriff Brent Marken.

The Cherry Falls trailer can be viewed at Dark Horizons.

Synopsis:

Australian director Geoffrey Wright brings his visceral storytelling style to America with Cherry Falls. Wright takes a fresh, frightening and fiendishly funny approach to the teen thriller genre and its two overriding preoccupations: sex and death. In the small town of Cherry Falls, VA, the students at George Washington High School will have to focus on one (no problem) to avoid the other (big problem).

Cherry Falls is a quiet little town - until the night that a serial killer begins preying on its youth. After a third teen is found slain, the killer's modus operandi emerges: the victims were all virgins. Sheriff Brent Marken (Michael Biehn) concerned for the safety of the teens in general and his own daughter, Jody (Brittany Murphy), in particular, calls an emergency town meeting.

But the meeting deteriorates into chaos and a fourth teen is murdered. The sheriff harbors a terrible suspicion as to who might be responsible for the slaying, but keeps it to himself as FBI agents arrive in town. Then, once the students realize that to save their skins, they're going to have to lose their virginity -now, a meet-and-mate bash takes shape.

Jody, still a virgin, finds herself at the center of the mystery and the mayhem. As the students' "Pop Your Cherry" ball gets going off-campus, Jody takes matters into her own hands (in more ways than one).

A Rogue Pictures presentation of an Industry Entertainment and Fresh Produce Company production. A Geoffrey Wright Film. Cherry Falls. Brittany Murphy, Michael Biehn, Gabriel Mann, and Jay Mohr. Casting by Johanna Ray. Music by Walter Werzowa. Costume Designer, Louise Frogley. Edited by John F. Link. Production Designer, Marek Dobrowolski. Director of Photography, Anthony B. Richmond, B.S.C. Co-Executive Producers, Ken Selden, Joyce Schweickert. Executive Producers, Scott Shiffman, Julie Silverman Yorn. Produced by Marshall Persinger, Eli Selden. Written by Ken Selden. Directed by Geoffrey Wright. Running time: 92 minutes.

About the Production

Cherry Falls is a teen thriller that tweaks many of the genre's trademarks and traditions. "Cherry Falls will come at you from a different angle than other movies in this genre, " promises actor Michael Biehn. For Australian director Geoffrey Wright, who has been planning to make a film in America, Ken Selden's screenplay was the lure. "There is enough idiosyncrasy and madness in this script to pique your interest, and that kept happening throughout," comments Wright. "There are recognizable ingredients standard tot he genre, but even those are superficial. There is so much else going on that it's just weird: for example, the film ends with an orgy. Any mainstream American movie that ends with an orgy has to be worth making!"

"I cannot think of another film in this genre that has been so thematically ambitions. It's a mainstream movie. At the same time, it's a black comedy. It's an allegory on the anxiety of losing one's virginity."

Not merely a horror film, Cherry Falls is also a psychological thriller with dark secrets and darker motivations. Wright muses, "My theory is that there really are no ordinary people. If you think that your boyfriend or your girlfriend is ordinary, it's just because you don't know them well enough. Look again."

At least one actor took that "look again" at the screenplay: Biehn remembers, "My agent sent me the script. I read about 15 pages of it and called my agent and said, "I don't want to do this - how many of these teen slasher movies are they going to do?' She said, 'Oh no, keep reading.' So I did, and I got a kick out of it. I could see where we could have a little bit of fun with the genre. There's a fine line in this movie - it's not a spoof, it's a satire. I just play my character straight up, but the situation is awry."

Further, Biehn had seen and admired Wright's Romper Stomper: "It's a great movie, violent and scary. When they told me Geoffrey was doing Cherry Falls, I was very excited about meeting him."

Playing the role of Sheriff Marken appealed to the actor because, as he recalls, "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a cop. I didn't pursue it, but now I've played so many cops. I've been on ride-alongs and I know police procedure very well. I like cops: the camaraderie, their sense of humor... I think I understand them pretty well."

There was another element that drew the actor to the role: "It's the first time that I've been able to work with the younger generation of actors. I have teenage kids, so I can relate - but my kids are boys. In Cherry Falls, I'm able to play the father of a teenage girl. There was an interesting aspect to the father/daughter relationship: a father accepting the fact that his daughter is becoming a woman. She's not the little girl he can wrestle with any more. It's about the time that a girl goes from Daddy's little girl to a young woman."

Nearly all of the location filming was done in Richmond, VA, including work at Thomas Jefferson High School (renamed George Washington High School to reference that President's well-documented cherry fixation). The town meeting sequence was filmed at TJHS during spring break, when its students wouldn't be inconvenienced. In return for the school's hospitality, the production contributed new equipment and gym uniforms to the high school.

[Director Geoffrey] Wright reports, "I had an enormous about of fun watching Michael nail his stuff in this, a lot of which is very internalized. Jay entertained cast and crew between takes - he's very amusing."

[Jay] Mohr was happy to amuse, reporting that "Everybody really got along. Brittany's just so sweet and hilarious and very talented. If you don't like Brittany [who, like Mohr, is a New Jersey native], you're got rocks in your head. Michael's a good guy, and he and I have the same sense of humor."

Biehn returns the compliment: "I had a lot of fun with Jay. He's going to be a big star; he's already doing pretty well." Of the director whose past work he had admired, Biehn says, "I enjoyed working with Geoffrey. He's very much, for me, an actor's director. He's also very meticulous, and always thinking."

Cherry Falls Photos: Michael Tackett
© 2000 USA Films
Used with permission

For his part, Wright cops to having favored a "chaotic" atmosphere on the set: "That's the mood we've tried to create on-screen: everything happening at once."

That approach also extended to the (literally) climactic orgy sequence. Even before filming the sequence, the director was mindful of just how he would approach it: "As we all know in this country, it's not violence that give you and 'NC-17,' it's sex. I think America has always been more sensitive to sex than it has been to violence. So, I had to watch myself. Not that we're going that far, mind you."

Having indeed secured an "R" rating for the film, Geoffrey Wright enthusiastically advises audiences to expect to "thrill to our action scenes, swoon at our romantic and passionate scenes, be terrified at our spine-tingling moments of suspense, and be on the edge of their seats throughout Cherry Falls."