Exclusive Stills, Posters, Trailer & Film Debut: Jeff Stewart Discusses The Velvet Elvis and The Reunion

Steve Barton   |  

Mar 8, 2012

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Want to see a black Elvis impersonator juggle both his music career and his full-time job of hunting demons in Hollywood? If so, then you’re in luck because feature film The Velvet Elvis is now FREE to stream online, and the flick’s maker gives you the skinny right here!

Scripted (with co-writer Brenton Lonkey) and directed by Jeff Stewart with producer credits going to Chris Kaczor and Kelsey Magaskie, The Velvet Elvis was shot over the course of twenty-three days last year in Trenton, New Jersey, and stars Kirk Ponton as “Velvis, who’s got a dream of hitting it big in Hollywood as a singer,” said filmmaker Stewart. “He’s finding it hard to turn his dream into a reality, though, because in addition to being a black Elvis impersonator, he also struggles daily with his pesky full-time job as a monster-killing desperado.”

Actor Kevin Ridgeway joins the festivities as Velvis’ manager Samael, who not only books singing gigs for the earnest performer, but who also locates demons and monsters for him in need of being sent back to hell. Throw into the mix a demon named Lamia (actress Jensen Bucher), a big, dumb serial killer by the name of Seth (actor Michael Markiewicz) and a musical score by John Pompeo, and you get the gist of The Velvet Elvis.

Having filmed the feature for a total of fifty thousand dollars budgeted to the production though Amazon.com via their Amazon Studios project, Stewart said of the project, which was filmed on 5D Mark II & T2I, “Being an indie filmmaker and having one of the biggest companies in the world finance our film was incredibly humbling. Not only did they give us the money to make the project happen, but they were supportive of us every step of the way. It was like working in a real studio setting, or as close to it as it gets on an indie scale. I’m very proud of the film we produced. Of course I wish I had more time and more money to do things bigger and better, but I think The Velvet Elvis is actually aided by the fact that we had to be innovative on the fly.”

As for offering The Velvet Elvis up for free (you can watch the flick in its entirety by following this link to Amazon, “The decision to give it away wasn’t up to me; it was the studio’s choice,” communicated Stewart of this rather unique distribution model. “Since this is a test film, Amazon wants to see if the project as a whole has legs and is worth a bigger budget and more love. That’s why I’m trying to get as many eyes on the film as possible. The more people who watch it, comment on it and tell their friends about it, the closer Velvis will get to being on the big screen, and hopefully with me at the helm again.”

“That’s why I can’t stress enough how important it is for people to support the film,” Stewart continued. “Watch it, share it, show it some love. My dream is for this to become more than a movie and become a movement – an underdog story if you will.”

For more info stop by The Velvet Elvis Facebook page.

Stewart describes his next project, a crime drama meets horror feature titled The Reunion (see the exclusive ‘Mondo’ poster art for that below), as “Dawn of the Dead meets ‘The Wire’. We are in post-production right now on it, and it should be hitting the festival circuit this summer.”

Starring The Velvet Elvis lead Ponton, Michael Toretto, Ronnie Armani and horror vet Raine Browne (100 Tears, Horror), The Reunion has a teaser trailer which you can see below. For more visit the official The Reunion website, and also be sure to “like” The Reunion on Facebook.

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