Lights! Camera! Action! For a recent West Lib graduate, Adam Leonard, Hollywood beckons.
The Wheeling native, who majored in communications and journalism with a creative writing minor, was part of a group that took the top prize in the West Virginia Flash Animation Festival. With university diploma in hand last December he and his festival colleagues, under the shingle Mercenary Media Entertainment (MME) scripted a “short” that led to funding for a full-length feature film.
The 25-minute pilot was shot in downtown Wheeling.
Though MME produced commercials, music videos and is scheming to stage a music festival, their film, “Ronnie Hoffman: Limo Driver” is backed with a $5 million through Seacoast Arts Production Company.
“The movie is a cross between “Super Troopers” and “Hangover,” says Leonard, who is a staff writer on the project, handles public relations and has a supporting role on camera.
The character, Ronnie Hoffman, is an eccentric who hangs out in a bar known for its outlandish bachelor and bachelorette parties. When Hoffman is assigned to chauffer a big-time Philadelphia radio announcer, Jeff O’Neal, in town for a convention, the two make a connection that leads to big-time trouble. The duo finds itself in some pretty unbelievable situations.
MME is busy these days prepping to shoot in Nova Scotia, Canada. A “Ronnie Hoffman: Limo Driver” movie trailer is on Facebook but Leonard warns parents, it contains foul language.