Los Angeles Filmmakers Launch Indiegogo.com Crowdfunding Campaign for Heavy Metal Coming of Age Comedy.

Filmmakers Brian Lerner and Ryan Maples combine their shared love of film and music and the power of both to tell the story of Jon, a 15-year-old outcast who becomes obsessed with Michelle, his beautiful 22-year-old guitar teacher and, influenced by the legendary metal icon Luke Wolf, gets a little crazy as he tries to win her love. The power a broken heart has over creating great music and the power music has to mend a broken heart is at the core of the Jon & The Wolf . It is a coming of age tale with layers of reality and fantasy that blend together to tell a powerful yet comedic story. The movie is for anyone that’s had a crush, a dream and gone through adolescence with the help of some great music.

Lerner and Maples have spun their feature length script into a short film that they plan to shoot in the fall and use as a tool to make the feature film. Using the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com, they hope to raise the remainder of funds needed to fully finance the production of the short film. More details and to find out how to contribute can be found here: http://igg.me/at/Jonandthewolf.

“We wanted to find a project to work on together and Brian mentioned he’d been trying to turn his actual experiences taking guitar lessons at age 13 into a movie. I thought the idea was a brilliant kernel for a film and that kernel became Jon & the Wolf, ” says Maples. Influenced by John Hughes, Cameron Crowe and movies like Little Miss Sunshine, Rushmore, Superbad and School of Rock  the filmmakers landed on the story they wanted to tell.

Synopsis:

Jon Stubewitz is a 15-year-old metal-head outcast with an absentee mother. He spends most of his time alone, with his best friend Sam and with his gorgeous and outrageous 22-year-old guitar teacher, Michelle. A shared love of 80’s metal era music leads to a bond beyond teacher and student, which Jon is misinterpreting as romantic attraction. Their lessons focus on learning an iconic heavy metal song by Luke Wolf (aka The Wolf), which Jon is determined to master in order to impress Michelle. During a weak moment, Michelle lets things go a little too far with Jon. Feeling ashamed she keeps her distance, which only fuels Jon’s obsession. Influenced by the wild ways of The Wolf, Jon heads down a misguided path as he tries to win the love of the girl of his dreams.

About The Filmmakers:

Brian Lerner:

Brian Lerner is an award winning comedy writer with a trophy on his desk from the 2003 Austin Film Festival Sitcom Teleplay competition to prove it. If you listen closely you can hear him polishing it right now. He is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz where he studied both music performance and TV/Film production. Most recently, Brian was a creative producer at Disney Interactive where he developed, directed and produced online video content that ranges from original series, Disney IP spin off shows and branded content to support other Disney divisions and their projects. Most recently he had a development deal with Disney for a digital scripted live action comedy and is involved with numerous other short and long form projects.

Ryan Maples:

A graduate of USC School of Cinema-Television the production credits of Ryan Maples include American Express, Brother International, Dole Foods, Disney, AOL, County of Orange, Match.com, Restoration Hardware, and Current TV. As a Director he has worked with several high-profile companies to create branded content. Maples has an extensive background in documentary work including directing short form documentaries on internationally known electronic artists and a feature length documentary, Pass the Music on the Los Angeles indie rock scene. He has won several awards for his narrative shorts. In 2013, Maples was the winner of an international short film competition sponsored and funded by Coca-Cola Zero.

More information at
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jon-the-wolf#/story
https://www.facebook.com/jonandthewolf