Los Angeles—The Ketchup King, a feature-length DV comedy, was completed last Friday, December 7.  After a grueling month-long shoot followed by over a year of begging favors for post-production, independent director-writer-producer Roger Rudick proudly began sending out VHS copies of his 82.5-minute feature.

The Ketchup King is a screwball comedy about a writer whose autobiographical script about a guy trying to get out of the mob is produced by a gay theater company that thinks the mob is a metaphor for coming out of the closet.  It features acting talents such as Harry O’Toole, best known for his portrayal of the soothsayer in Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys.  It was shot in Pittsburgh on a shoestring budget, with many recent graduates of Carnegie Mellon Drama School.  Post production was done in Los Angeles.  Music was composed in Toronto.

Rudick, a journalist whose writings have been published in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, began development of The Ketchup King while completing his last semester of Carnegie Mellon University’s MFA program in dramatic writing.  Since arriving in Los Angeles a year ago, Rudick has worked in post production on MADE, a theatrical feature distributed by Artisan Entertainment, and has been hired for a script rewrite of The Deadly Pawn, a Fred Weintraub/Tom Kuhn action film scheduled for production next summer.  Rudick was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan screenwriting award for his script The Deep Six.  His play, Story of a Comfort Girl, was showcased in Toronto in 2000.

His co-producer, Jeff Stimmel, has worked as location manager and production manager on over 20 films, including major studio pictures such as Paramount’s The Wonder Boys, starring Michael Douglas.

For more information, contact Rudick directly at RJRUDICK2@AOL.COM

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LARRY Colonowski, a young budding screenwriter from Pittsburgh, works in a video store.  Larry's uncle ELI, a mobster, runs the ketchup industry in Pittsburgh.  Eli loves his nephew, but will tolerate his ambitions of screenwriting for only so long.  Larry knows if he doesn't break into screenwriting soon, his uncle will force him to quit the video store and join the "family" business.

Larry begs Lance BOYLE, the best agent in Pittsburgh, to find him a writing gig.  Boyle comes up with a connection at a New York theater company called "The Purple Project."  He convinces Larry to rewrite "The Ketchup King," his autobiographical screenplay about a man trying to break out of the Mafia, as a stage play, so the Purple Project might produce it.  Then, if successful on the stage, it might get produced as a film at a later date.

Desperate, Larry accepts the offer, and travels to New York.  There he meets Sal PEPPER, the flamboyant theater manager of the Purple Project who wants to produce "The Ketchup King" for the stage.  Pepper takes Larry for a tour of the theater and they watch some auditions.  Larry finds New York theater to be a strange experience, to say the least.

Well into the production, Larry begins to realize that Pepper and the director of the piece, RICKY, think breaking "out" of the Mafia is a metaphor for coming out of the closet!  Although the dialogue is the same, the play begins to turn into a more and more bizarre "coming out" play.

Meanwhile, uncle Eli comes to New York for the international condiment expo.  There he's trailed by MARVIN, the head of the competing condiment family, the one that produces mustard.  Marvin is out to get Eli over a territorial war about the production of relish.  Eli, since he's in New York, decides to come to the opening of his nephew's play.

Things get more and more insane, until finally Eli and Marvin end up fighting it out on the stage, in the midst of the performance of The Ketchup King.  The play reverts from a coming out play to a play about mobsters, since real mobsters end up shooting it out on stage during the climax.

As a result, the stage version of The Ketchup King gets rave reviews, and a Hollywood producer asks if Larry would be willing to do a film adaptation.

At the conclusion, Larry realizes his dream and gets to direct the feature film version himself.

December 13, 2001

Roger Rudick recently finished his first feature, The Ketchup King.  A professional writer and journalist with ten years experience, Rudick has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times..  Last summer he rewrote The Deadly Pawn, a Weintraub-Kuhn production scheduled to start principle photography next year.  His full-length play, Story of a Comfort Girl, was contracted for 14 performances at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto, Canada.  His screenplay The Deep Six, received an Alfred P. Sloan award.  He was associate producer and played a role in Eyes Beyond Seeing, a feature aired on UPN.

Rudick, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, has lived and worked in both New York and London and has reported from Paris, Sydney, Florence, Tokyo, Singapore, and Los Angeles, where he currently resides  He has a Masters in Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a BA in Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

He was born in Queens, New York, in 1969

For a detailed resume complete with published writing samples, click HERE

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JEFF STIMMEL
1773 Lanier Place NW, Apt. 20
Washington, DC 20009
202-483-8824

PRODUCER    THE KETCHUP KING   KETCHUP KING, LLC
          Director: Roger Rudick
PRODUCER    STATE OF THE ARTIST   SLEEPWAKER FILMS
          Director: Ed Sherman
LOCATION MANAGER   WONDER BOYS    PARAMOUNT PICTURES
     Producers: Scott Rudin/   Director: Curtis Hanson
     Ned Dowd
LOCATION MANAGER   THE TEMPTATIONS   HALLMARK ENTERTAINMENT/
          NBC TELEVISION
     Producer: Jay Benson   Director: Allan Arkush
LOCATION MANAGER   DOGMA     MIRAMAX FILMS/LIONS GATE
     Producers: Scott Moiser/   Director: Kevin Smith
     Laura Greenlee
UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGER  WAIT, ERNESTO!   KALEIDOSCOPE MEDIA
UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGER  THE STUDIO    ICON PICTURES
LOCATION MANAGER   WRESTLING WITH ALLIGATORS  HOMEGROWN PICTURES
UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGER  THE JOURNEY    BSKYB ENTERTAINMENT/FOX
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  THE ASSASSINATION FILE  UNIVERSAL PICTURES
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  KING PIN    MGM/RYSHER ENTERTAINMENT
LOCATION SCOUT   DIABOLIQUE    MORGAN CREEK PRODUCTIONS
LOCATION MANAGER   DOG EAT DOG    MIDNITE ENTERTAINMENT
LOCATION SCOUT   THE TWELVE MONKEYS   UNIVERSAL PICTURES
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  STREET CORNER JUSTUS  STEEL CITY FILMS
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  THE OKSANA BAIUL STORY  CBS TELEVISION
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  HOUSEGUEST    HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
LOCATION ASSISTANT   ONLY YOU    TRI-STAR PICTURES
LOCATION ASSISTANT   THE STAND    LAUREL ENTERTAINMENT
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  BACK STREET JUSTICE   HBO PICTURES
LOCATION ASSISTANT   MONEY FOR NOTHING   BUENA VISTA PICTURES
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  THE FIRE NEXT TIME   ABC TELEVISION
ASST. LOCATION MANAGER  AN AMERICAN DREAM   ABC TELEVISION
     THE JACKSON 5 STORY
LOCATION ASSISTANT   CITIZEN COHN    HBO PICTURES
LOCATION MANAGER   UNIVERSITIES OF   TELECOM JAPAN   THE WORLD
LOCATION ASSISTANT   BOB ROBERTS    PARAMOUNT PICTURES
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT  MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD   FAMILY COMMUNICATIONS

REFERENCES
  Ned Dowd  Spyglass Entertainment  818-560-2030
  Scott Mosier  View Askew Productions 732-842-6933
  Marcia Kirkley  Homegrown Pictures  212-962-9288
  Laura Greenlee  Miramax Films   213-694-2725
  Wil Master  Kaleidoscope Media  212-757-0700

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