Bold Films today announced their next film, Shot Caller, will be directed by Ric Roman Waugh (Snitch, That Which I Love Destroys Me) from his script. Bold’s Michel Litvak and Matthew Rhodes will serve as producers on the project along with Waugh and Participant Media’s Jonathan King, who developed the project. Bold’s Gary Michael Walters will executive produce with Participant’s Jeff Skoll with Bold Films fully financing the production.
Shot Caller follows a newly released prison gangster who is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.
“Ric Roman Waugh is an extremely gifted, rising filmmaker,” says Litvak, “and we are delighted to make this edgy, elevated crime thriller with him.”
“‘Shot Caller’ fits right into the Bold brand,” adds Walters, “and we are excited to work with Participant.”
In order to get a real-world grasp of prison and the gangs that run these institutions, Waugh went undercover as a volunteer parole agent in California. What started out as a simple research assignment became a two-year odyssey as doors kept opening, allowing him more and more access into this violent world.
“No one knew I was a filmmaker,” Waugh explains. “They just saw me as a rookie cop, so nothing was censored. What I quickly learned is the guards might control the doors and gates, but the gangs run the prisons…and they run the streets as well, directly ‘from’ prison. ‘Shot Caller’ is an authentic look at our prison gangs and the law enforcement professionals who guard them inside prison walls.”
The film will start production on May 26 in New Mexico and be overseen by Bold’s Lisa Zambri.
