Sarah Thompson

STORY :

"The story begins with a vicious prank taking the life of an awkward and unpopular teen and then shifts both backwards and forwards in time to show her life before and after. Described as “unattractive and without self-esteem,” high school senior Tamara Riley can’t even enjoy her dawning sexual fantasies due to the polluting effect of her father’s inappropriate advances. She is completely helpless against her classmates’ biting comments and cruel pranks- almost. Tamara studies witchcraft, and when the burning anger bubbling inside her erupts, her magic spells pay off with surprising force. After Tamara’s death, she returns as the beautiful seductress from her fantasies, equipped with the power to entrance people and turn their own vanity and weaknesses against them. Though still interested in "fitting in," Tamara has little patience for her fellow students’ attitudes and fears, finding it easier to destroy them than to become part of the in crowd."

DETAILS :

 You may remember star Sarah Thompson as Eve on the new season of the WB series Angel. she will play the lead role.

 Filming begins mid-June.

 Co-executive producer Steve Whitney of this film is also involved with "The Amityville Horror" remake.

 The film is co-produced by City Lights Pictures.

 The script was written by Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick.

 The director is the founder for Short End Productions.

2004 March 12: Screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick talks TAMARA :

With his supernatural-vengeance chiller TAMARA getting ready to roll this June, scripter Jeffrey (FINAL DESTINATION) Reddick talked with Fango about his intentions for the project. “When I started TAMARA,” he tells us, “I wanted to write a horror film that I wanted to see, because after FINAL DESTINATION, everybody wanted me to write another movie just like it, and that was such a unique concept that that was hard to do. So I just decided to write a fun, old-style horror film.

“The thing about TAMARA,” he continues, “is that it does start off sounding like CARRIE [with its focus on a peer-abused teen girl], but the difference in our story is that the lead character is killed 30 minutes into the film, and then comes back as this beautiful supernatural villainess, who spends the last hour trying to fit in as well as getting revenge. Tamara doesn’t just return wanting to slaughter the people who wronged her; she’s also trying to find her place in the world, and when that doesn’t work out, then she goes for payback. It’s kind of universal, the idea of finding your place in the world and trying to fit in; there’s more heart to this.”

However, when the hell-hath-no-fury material kicks in, Reddick promises the movie won’t pull any punches. “I try to push the envelope, and some of the kill scenes are really intense,” he says. “I pushed the sexuality envelope too; we scared a couple of potential actresses off, and I think we’re going to scare some of the actors who will be auditioning. Horror films give a license to explore issues and push boundaries that other genres don’t.”

The independent nature of the project will help in that regard. “The way this project was set up was we had the financing before we attained a domestic distributor, so we have complete creative control on the script, and that’s what’s letting us push the envelope in many areas. We don’t have a studio breathing down our necks saying, ‘You can’t do that.’ My managers, Steve Whitney and Andrew Trapani, are also co-producing TAMARA, and they’re involved in the new AMITYVILLE remake as well, so we’re all in good genre hands.”

Reddick is also thrilled to have ANGEL’s Sarah Thompson playing the title role. “When she came in to read, I didn’t know who she was,” the writer admits, “’cause I hadn’t looked at her résumé, but she totally blew us away in the audition. Then when I read her credits, I had my little geek-boy moment, because I loved her on ANGEL. We’re probably going to do a Charlize Theron on Sarah [for Tamara’s early scenes]; we’re not just going to put her hair up in a bun, put glasses on her and say she’s not pretty-we’re really going to make her unattractive!” Director David Sporn also meets with Reddick’s high approval: “He was intstrumanetal in putting this whole deal together and getting the movie financed. One thing that’s great about him is that he’s very much an actor’s director, and he’s really going to bring out all the psychological stuff that’s key to setting this above a typical hot-girl-killing-people-for-revenge movie.”

TAMARA isn’t the only genre-oriented project occupying Reddick’s time lately; he has also adapted the serial-killer film BLOODLINES from Jan Burke’s novel NINE for Noah Wyle’s Wyle/Katz company and Constantin Film. “That is out to directors right now. What really attracted me to the book was that on the surface it’s very SEVEN-ish, in that it’s about someone knocking off the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, so you have the horror element of those murders, but when you peel back the story, there’s a whole other element going on that you don’t expect. There are definitely some very intense, gruesome scenes in there.”

One forthcoming genre project Reddick won’t be involved with is FINAL DESTINATION 3, which looks likely to be filmed in 3-D. “I wasn’t approached for the next one,” says Reddick, who was credited as an executive producer and story writer on the first sequel. “FINAL DESTINATION was my baby and I was kind of protective of it for a while, but I have two movies shooting this summer, so I’m not going to complain. I have to say, usually 3-D movies are the nail in the coffin for a franchise, but if there’s ever a movie that could work in 3-D, it’s FINAL DESTINATION.”