Today – if you’re reading this when it was first posted – is a big one for us.

The fully immersive audio drama, True Noir: The Assassination of Mayor Cermak – all four and a half hours of it – becomes widely available for the first time. Skyboat is the publisher and Blackstone Audio is the distributor.

The three formats are:

Digital Download
CD (I believe that’s on 4 CDs)
MP3CD, the entire program is on a single disc.

The best place to order True Noir – particularly the physical media version – is via Blackstone’s sales site, Downpour.com, where all three formats are available, in fact the only place you can access all three.

If you are an Audible member, or just like to do your business there, go directly to Audible or to Amazon.

[And here’s B&N/Nook! — Nate]

Anyone who likes my work will, in my less than humble opinion, be delighted hearing this. Director Robert Meyer Burnett, working with casting guru Christine Sheaks (Boogie Nights), assembled an unparalleled company of actors headed up by Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) as Nathan Heller. Mike Bawden and my longtime collaborator Phil Dingeldein were the behind-the-scenes producers.

Among the notable actors (take a deep breath) are David Strathairn as Frank Nitti, Jeffrey Combs as Mayor Anton Cermak, Anthony LaPaglia as Al Capone, Katee Sackhoff as Janey, Bill Mumy as Dr. Ronga and Patton Oswalt as Dipper Cooney. That’s just the beginning: the great Bill Smitrovich (Lt. Cramer on Nero Wolfe!) and Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy on The Sopranos) are just two more top names in a cast including Barry Bostwick (Rocky Horror Picture Show), PJ Byrne (The Boys), and Adam Arkin (A Serious Man).

With a great full score by Alexander Bornstein and incredible sound design supervised by director/editor/co-producer Rob Burnett, it’s truly a movie for the ears. That I was able to write the script myself – adapting the first Nathan Heller novel, True Detective – made this a dream-come-true project.

And Rob did a terrific job with the actors, and included me in the process of recording them in LA (I attended most of the sessions by Zoom from here in Iowa). I can truly say that this has been one of the best creative experiences of my career.

Here is a taste:

And please check out this terrific review of True Noir from Ed Catto.

By sheer coincidence – and I am not kidding – another big M.A.C. project goes into international distribution on the very same day as True Noir. The movie I wrote and directed, based on the Antiques cozy mystery series that Barb and I write as “Barbara Allan,” also is now available on DVD (from Amazon) and on various VOD services (I’ll be more specific when I know which ones).

Check out our page at our distributor, DeskPop Entertainment, right here (it includes the trailer).

The film was shot here in Muscatine, Iowa – specifically at New Era Lutheran Church, adjacent to which is a theater where most of our production was staged. It’s near scenic Wild Cat Den, seen in the climax of Mommy’s Day; but we were very much operating on the church and theater. It was an intense but fun two-week shoot, plus the usual second unit stuff, including some Wild Cat Den shots and scenes at Meg’s Vintage Collectibles, which became the Trash ‘n’ Treasures antiques shop from the Barbara Allan books.

We’re very proud of it, and Barb was involved every step of the way, a producer supervising the production. Is it a big-budget production? No, not unless you compare it to my previous film, Blue Christmas. Like that film, we are a micro-budget production dependent upon a good script and a solid cast.

We couldn’t have asked for a better Vivian Borne than Paula Sands, legendary Midwestern, Emmy-winning broadcaster; or a better Brandy Borne, played by Midwest super-songstress Alisabeth Von Presley. Brandy’s police chief boy friend, is portrayed by Rob Merritt, who looks suspiciously like the lead actor who played private eye Richard Stone in Blue Christmas. Their supporting cast includes many familiar faces from that previous production.

I am pleased to have Death by Fruitcake exist as a DVD release – we had several distributors interested in the film, but Twin Engines (actually DeskPop, a subsidiary) included a DVD release. And that sealed the deal for me.

Here’s a fun piece from the always great site the Stiletto Gumshoe, discussing why some readers won’t be able to see Sam Spade as anything but Humphrey Bogart when reading The Maltese Falcon…or Return of the Maltese Falcon.

Here’s a recent appearance on WQAD-TV channel 8 in Moline, Illinois. The interviewer, Shelby Kluver, is a delight. It’s about (among other things) the Star City Film Festival, in which a movie I wrote, Mickey Spillane’s Cap City, was entered. More about that next week!

M.A.C.

Tags: Antiques Fruitcake, Antiques Series, Barbara Allan, Nate Heller, Nathan Heller, New Releases, True Noir, True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak, True Noir: The Nathan Heller Casebooks