'Kill Em All' spinoff planned with 'Burgh setting
After spending several years as a director, photographer and tattoo artist in Pittsburgh, Brian Holton wanted to return to his roots.
When he discovered an old friend's Web series on his Facebook timeline, he saw it as an opportunity to head home to Kansas City, Mo., and get involved with the show himself.
“Kill Em All“ is a mafia-inspired crime drama written by Holton's friend and the show's producer and lead actor Jesse Pringle. Following the filming of the first season, the original director stepped away from the project, prompting Holton to officially join the crew.
Now, Holton is planning to bring these opportunities back to Pittsburgh by writing another “Kill Em All” spinoff show, considering Bloomfield or Polish Hill as possible settings.
“It's an action-packed artistic endeavor,” Holton, 38, says.
The show follows Pringle's character, Carson McCollough, an Irish-American man who has lost his family to a modern-day mafia in Kansas City. In reaction to his brother's death, McCollough and Kate, his widowed sister-in-law, played by Kirstin Kluver, embark on a quest for revenge against an Italian family known as the Martuccis.
Despite being a fairly new drama, “Kill Em All” is already critically acclaimed. In 2014, it was awarded “Best Web Series” at L.A. Web Fest. Shortly after the festival, the series began syndication in France.
Since receiving worldwide praise, the crew is now working on a spinoff show based in Los Angeles, titled “Kill Em All L.A.”
“It's the only city-based Web series that's crossing over to multiple cities,” Holton says. “And it's still growing.”
With casting calls for the Pittsburgh version of the show scheduled for January, Holton hopes to attract the local actors he has often seen in need of work.
“It's kind of hard for actors to get work outside of industrial (commercials) in Pittsburgh,” Holton says. “We have fashion models looking to branch out and actors trying to build their careers, and actors should always be consistently working.”
As the plans for the constantly expanding series continue to progress, the current cast and crew remain grateful for their opportunities and following.
“There's a loyalty to the Web series,” Kluver says. “There's a sense of community that's just really beautiful. It's definitely been an experience like no other in the Web-series realm.”
Pringle's understanding of the difficulties that actors so often face when looking for work is an important aspect of the series to Kluver. The crew hopes that this union-based project can help jumpstart the careers of talented people who have yet to be discovered by mainstream Hollywood.
“It's complicated for actors to get on film with Screen Actors Guild actors to build their careers,” Holton says.
Details: facebook.com/ killemallpgh
Madison Taylor is a writer for Point Park News Service.
