Film's 4 & 5 WILL END 'The Challenger" WEB SERIES

          "The Challenger" Film Series will come to an end in 2014. " A hero will fall."  One of the three main characters will die in either film 4 or 5. Will it be Captain Mora (Mike Covello), Ronny Gunnerson (me) or will it be Rick Sledge aka "The Challenger" (Aramis Pacitto)? Thats the big question. But I assure you, it will be unexpected... Film 4 is titled "The Challenger: Urban Legend" and will feature Darius Ban reprising his role as Lucas Wolf. With Ricci in prison and Walker side tracked, Lucas Wolf is the main antagonist in this film, his goal is to get the crate containing melted gold and the black gun that 'The Challenger" uses. The Lawman has a big part in this film as he goes after Wolf and in his battle with him, we discover who he is. Filming for "The Challenger 4" has partially begun. We filmed a scene with a new cast member, Liia Kajak who plays Brooklyn. This scene will show you the softer side of Sledge from the past. We have also casted a new member to play a computer hacker named Quan. This man also acts as "Matthew" in our upcoming film titled "Innocent Gun," his name is Alex Stacey. Mr. V will also make a return in this film. But his role hasn't been casted yet. We are hoping to bring James DinElla back to reprise his role.

        Onto "The Challenger 5: Dark Triad," this film follows the events of "The Challenger 4." I can't say much about this film... All I can say is that Ricci & Walker are back and they have a major role along with Wolf. One more thing that I can say is that the Lawman offers to help "The Challenger." Will they team up? You'll have to wait to find out. Mr.V will have a minor role in this film. "The Challenger 5" since it's the conclusion of the series will have tones more action than any other film we've done. "The Challenger 4" script is complete and we will continue filming that in January. It's too early to set a release date, but possibly in the summer of 2014. "The Challenger 5" script is currently being written. 'A hero will fall.'  The fifth film concludes the series but there may be potential for a spin off.  I'm not guaranteeing anything but we might have a Captain Mora spin off.  But a Mora spin off would be a comedy. Theres potential for a spin off in any character that we don't kill off like maybe Gunnerson, Lawman or Mora. We may also do a film that shows Sledge's early years in the LAPD. But only time will tell.

"The Challenger 4" & 5 will conclude the film series and someone will die.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 3: URBAN OUTLAW - July to October 2013

             Since the beginning of "The Challenger 2" film sessions, Aramis Pacitto and I had no doubt in our minds that there would be a third Challenger film. So I had an idea about how we could do a sequel that picks up from where the second one left off. I wrote the first draft of the film and I wanted to make this film more of a drama than an action film. I accomplished that in Draft 1, but once Aramis got a hold of the script he said that we should add some more action. He did that and it made the script more interesting. Once the script was complete by mid-July, Aramis and I had an idea for a new character. We decided to take one of the characters we have and make him into a Vigilante called "The Lawman." The Lawman is someone who is trying to give criminals a chance to confess to their crimes, and if they don't... They get killed. I play "The Lawman" in the film and this character has a small scene that's setting up something bigger for "The Challenger 4 & 5."

            On July 22nd 2013, it was the last day of filming for "The Challenger 2:UNLIMITED" and it was the first day of filming for "The Challenger 3." We filmed a flashback scene where, The Challenger slams Walker into a wall and gives him a warning. Walkers role in this film is to play a villain who has been defeated and depressed and its the Don's role to give him the confidence to take down "The challenger" once again.  On August 5th, we filmed our opening scene of the film with a motorcycle. This scene features james DinElla as Mr.V. Frank Pacitto doubled as Sledge on the bike. One of our most iconic shots in this scene was when Mr. V came out of the shadows.Our next filming day was our toughest day on set. It was Mike Covello's day to shine in his role as Captain Mora. This scene was somewhat of a comedic scene where Sledge has to pick up the captain of the LAPD and bring him to work. Mora's job in this scene is to remind Sledge that he has to take down "The Challenger." There was a tone of bloopers in this scene. Mike Covello, due to his heavy Italian accent has a hard time saying some of the words. But after two hours of filming, we got through it and got a good light hearted scene out of it.

            Then on August 10th, we filmed our best scene yet. I call this scene the disappearing act. Dino Mazza reprised his role as Ricci, the head of the mafia. The scene starts off with Ricci pulling at the chains from which "The Challenger" escaped from in the second film. Dino pulled so hard on the chains that he broke the shelf it was hanging on (See our bloopers for details). It was one of the funniest bloopers we had. Onto the scene. Aramis Pacitto once again acting as "The Challenger" gives Ricci a warning to stay on the straight and narrow. Anthony Digiovanni returned for this scene as Baily. He runs in and gets shot. By the time Ricci looks back, The Challenger is gone. The next day, Aramis and I filmed our first ever scene in what we call the Cellar. The Cellar is where Sledge & Gunnerson do their workouts and their training.  In those scenes we show, Gunnerson boxing, Sledge doing cinder block push ups, pull ups and target practice.

        On August 18th, we filmed the final scene of the movie where Sledge & Gunnerson pay their respects to Amanda Sledge (Who got murdered by Ricci). After that scene we took a week off to continue filming "Man Of War." Then on August 26, we got back to work on "The Challenger" and we filmed a scene featuring Mikayla Pacitto as Barbra. Barabra is a character who works for big criminal enterprise which is not explored during the film. She works for a man called "The Ring Lord." The Ring Lord will appear in "The Challenger 4." Mikayla's scene was tough because she seemed a little nervous while acting with Chika Mafina (Walker). So it took over a hour for her to get it right, but just like Mike's scenes it turned out good at the end. Our next filming day was September 3rd. We filmed the final battle between The Challenger, Ricci & Walker. This is when you see Walker return with the confidence he had in "The Challenger 2." He nearly kills Sledge, but Ricci gets in the way and spoils the party.

      Ricci ends up getting arrested and Walker has now turned on him. What will this lead to in the future? Time will tell... With less than a month until "Man Of War" gets released, we once again took a break from "The Challenger" to finish that film off. A month after filming the Ricci scenes we filmed the debut scene of The Lawman... This scene is just a basic introduction to a new character that will be a main role in future films. Two days later it was the last day of filming for "The Challenger 3." It was Sledge, a green beret VS Wolf, a Mercenary. Darius Ban played Wolf in a epic fight scene that we believe was our best fight scene in all of our films. It was Bourne style camera work on that scene. After that it was onto post production. Aramis Pacitto edited everything and released the film on November 15th ( 1 month early.)

      So whats in store for the future of "The Challenger" you ask? Well "The Challenger 4" has begun filming and all I can tell you is that Lucas Wolf is the major villain and the Lawman's identity will be revealed. I can also tell you that "The Challenger 4" & "The Challenger 5" are continuous stories that conclude our Film series at 5 films. "A hero will fall." Who will it be and when? "The Challenger 4:urban Legend" will be released in the summer of 2014 and "The Challenger 5: Dark Triad" will be released in the winter of 2014.


     - Andrew Di Pardo

Soundtrack for "The Challenger 3" provided by the Audio Network & Duran Duran



 

The Story of Antonio Ricci & the Mafia by Andrew Di Pardo

       Antonio Ricci Junior was born on December 3^rd 1979. He was the son of mafia don (who he was named after). He had a simple life, a mother and father that cared about him. The don was always able to provide for his family, with the help of protection money that rival gangsters would give him and the money he would get for drug trafficking. But the one thing the don didn’t want was for his son to end up like him. When Ricci Junior was old enough to learn the truth about his father, he was shocked. His father wasn’t a good man, he got mixed up with some bad people as a child and it lead him to become the mafia don. Antonio told his son what he had been through and that he didn’t want him to end up mixed up in the mafia. Antonio made his son promise.

     As Ricci Junior got older, his father made sure that he was untouchable by the mafia. He threatened to kill his own men if they got his son involved. The mafia was untouchable for years until one day in 2001, a curious detective named Jason Sledge been investigating them and swore to captain Mora that he would take them down. Jason did everything by the book with his trusty partner Tom McCoy. It took them a year, but they had enough to bring down Ricci’s entire organization. That’s when Antonio Ricci put a hit on Jason Sledge. Ricci hired Lucas Wolf to take him out. Jason had no training besides his police training from the LAPD, which made it very easy for Wolf (a mercenary) to take him down.

     In January 2002, Wolf killed Jason and fled town and went to Iraq. All the evidence that McCoy and Jason had was burned by Wolf. So Ricci was happy, his organization dodged going to jail. Richard Sledge (Jason’s son), was angry. He joined the army so he can take down the man who killed his father. Wolf would survive and Ricci remained untouchable until 2010. In 2010, Richard Sledge joined the LAPD as a detective and worked alongside his father’s partner, Tom McCoy. Their goal was to take down Ricci and the mafia. In July of 2010, Wolf returned to LA and was rehired by Ricci to kidnapped and kill McCoy and Sledge’s girlfriend, Brooklyn Astor. Sledge hunted down Wolf and tried to stop him, but he failed. Sledge then threw Wolf off the building and went straight for Ricci.

     Sledge had now become a vigilante known as “The Challenger,” he kidnapped Ricci and had enough evidence to lock him up for good. He had Ricci in the back seat of the parole car, he was on route to the prison, when a man in all black stood in the middle of the street and shot the car off the road. It was Walker, a hitman. He shot Ricci and killed him. Antonio Ricci Junior was later called to the prison later that night to identify the body. Ricci Junior was upset, the captain of the LAPD, Mora, told him that some vigilante killed him. Ricci later discovered that the vigilante was known as “The Challenger.”

     From that moment on, Ricci took over the mafia to be the new don with one goal… “To Kill The Challenger.” He sent several of his Mafioso’s after him and they all failed to kill him. He even tried hiring a hitman. But no one could beat him. Until one day, he hired a new hitman known as Walker to take him out. Ricci is unaware that Walker is the man that killed his father, not “The Challenger.” Walker tried to take him out, he staged a hostage situation just so he could bring him out into the open. It worked and, “The Challenger” had been kidnapped. Walker tortured him, by killing innocent people in front of him, but the Challenger wouldn’t give up.

     Eventually he would get free and beat Walker and then he went after Ricci to give him a warning. “If you ever come after me again, you’ll end up in a body bag,” The Challenger said. But that doesn’t stop Ricci. Ricci won’t stop going after “The Challenger” until he’s dead. This is not what his father would have wanted for him, hut it’s something that he feels that he has to do to avenge his father’s death. Ricci junior would eventually form a team called the Dark Triad to take “The Challenger” out once and for all… Will he succeed?

- Andrew Di Pardo

PS: This does not connect to "The Challenger 3"

The Story of Rick Sledge AKA "The Challenger" by Andrew Di Pardo

      Richard Sledge was born in Los Angeles California on December 7^th 1976. He was raised by his parents, Jason & Amanda Sledge. His father Jason, was a detective. His mother Amanda, was a stay at home mom. Since Richard was a boy he always was interested in helping people. He would see posters of soldiers and tell his father that, “One day, that will be me.” One day when Richard was twenty years of age, Antonio Ricci hired a hitman named Lucas Wolf to kill Jason Sledge. Rick’s father was murdered in cold blood because he put the mafia behind bars. That’s when Rick decided to fight for his country… Before he went off to join the Special Forces Assessment and Selection Course (SFAS), he met a girl by the name of Brooklyn. She convinced him not to go. But one day, Rick told her that this was something that he had to do.

Before he went to join the SFAS, he proposed to her and told her that when he makes it back, he will marry her. But what he didn’t tell her was that he was joining the army because the man who killed his father was there and he wanted revenge. The next day he enlisted in the Army and was trained as a Green Beret Special forces operative. By the year 2003, he was fighting in Iraq and he ran into exactly who he wanted to run into, Lucas Wolf. Sledge stole a crate that Wolf had in his possession. This crate was very valuable, it had million dollars’ worth of melted down gold and it had a black gun that had no serial number on it. It was the gun that Wolf used to kill Jason Sledge. Wolf was determined to get it back. Sledge didn’t budge. Wolf tracked down where Sledge had the crate and they fought over it. Sledge would eventually knock Wolf unctuous and escape with the crate. He moved to another location.

Wolf was unable to track him since. By 2007, Rick Sledge was called out of Iraq and back to LA. Sledge didn’t know what to do with his career… But one day, the caption of the LAPD contacted him with a job opportunity as a detective. The captain’s name was Mora. Sledge didn’t want the job because he found that it was too limited when it came to the law. But his fiancé, Brooklyn convinced him to take the job. Mora assigned him with a partner named Tom McCoy. There assignment was to find a way to bring Antonio Ricci and the Italian Mafia down. Sledge and McCoy followed the rules of the law by the book. Until one day in 2009, there loyalty was put to the test. Sledge’s partner and his Fiancée were kidnapped by Lucas Wolf. Sledge tracked them down with the help of Mora and his new partner, who was nameless. Sledge and his new partner enter the building, they take down all 8 of the men and then they find out that Wolf has the hostages on the building.

Sledge wants to do this alone. He tells his partner to call for backup. When Sledge makes it to the top of the building, Wolf has two men holding both his loved ones at the edge. Wolf wants the crate, Sledge doesn’t give it to him and because of that Wolf kills the two hostages. Sledge then grabs Wolf by the throat. “You can’t kill me… You’re a cop,” Wolf says. Sledge reply’s in anger:” Not anymore.” Sledge throws him off the roof. Rick has now become something different, he’s become a “Challenger.” The partner Sledge worked with on the case is now his full time partner with the death of McCoy, his name is Ronny Gunnerson. Sledge no longer believes in the law, he believes justice can be served in other ways. When he’s off duty, he’s “The Challenger.” He takes down criminals who break the law. “If you’re bad. You’re dead,” is The Challengers policy. Gunnerson remains in the dark about this. In 2012, The Challenger is known to the cops as a criminal who breaks the law and that he must be stopped. Captain Mora and Ronny Gunnerson are keen on stopping him. Gunnerson and Sledge have to work together to catch this vigilante. It could be tough since Sledge is The Challenger.

The Challenger has now become something that is a nuisance to people like Antonio Ricci Junior and Walker. Antonio Ricci JR believes that “The Challenger” killed his father, so he hired a hitman known as Walker to take him out. The Challenger could care less. The Challengers motto is “Never Challenge a Challenger or you’ll end up in a body bag.” But at the heart of it all, The Challenger just wants justice to be served. The Challenger believes that “Proof is overrated.” 

- Andrew Di Pardo

PS: This does not connect to "The Challenger 3"

A Monologue by Rick Sledge (THE CHALLENGER)

     My names Rick Sledge… I was recruited to fight in the Iraq war in 2003. I was a green beret. I risked my life for the sake of others. Lucas Wolf was a mercenary in the war, and he held a crate that contained a weapon with no serial number on it. It was untackable. Wolf is a killer and I couldn’t let him keep the crate. I kept thinking to myself, “Imagine what would happen after the war if Wolf had this gun. Many people would die because I gave it up.” I didn’t want that kind of blood on my hands. When I made it back to LA in 2005, I had a hard time adjusting to life behind the warzone. That’s when the Captain of the LAPD approached me with a job. He wanted me to become a detective and work alongside Tom McCoy. I hesitated at first, but thanks to the help of my girlfriend, Brooklyn, I decided to take the job.

     For years I worked with McCoy, until one day when Lucas Wolf came after me. He wanted the crate back so he could do the crime without doing the time. Wolf then kidnapped both my girlfriend and my trusty partner and threatened to murder them. I was a man who always followed the law by the book. Until that day. I managed to reach Wolf and take down his men. But then…Then… He killed them. He crossed the line and I was angry. So I grabbed him by the throat and held him over the building. He begged for his life, saying that I couldn’t kill him because I was a cop. I didn’t care about the law at that moment, all I cared about was justice and revenge. So I threw him off the building. I though he was dead. But his body was never found. That moment was the day that I became “THE CHALLENGER.”

I now followed my own rules… “If you’re Bad… You’re Dead.” I didn’t let any criminals get in my way. I gave criminals a chance to go to prison. But if they challenged me… I fired back. I don’t believe in warrants… I believe that “Proof is overrated.” If you know where the criminal is and what he’s done, why do you need warrants? Because a book says so? I don’t think so. I still am a man of the law, but in a different way. Justice can be defined in many ways. The criminal doesn’t have to be alive for justice to be served. Most of the time they are better off dead. The Challenger has no rules, no limitations. That’s why the criminals fear me. They don’t know what I will do next.

- Rick Sledge (The Challenger) Monologue was written by Andrew Di Pardo

PS: This monologue does not connect to "The Challenger 3:Urban Outlaw (Which premiers on December 6th)"

MAN OF WAR - July to September 2013

         Filming for "MAN OF WAR" began during the "The Challenger:Unlimited" sessions in July of this year when Aramis Pacitto went on a trip to Muskoka, Ontario. The basic story of "Man of War" is: "The CIA needs someone with experience to handle their latest assignment... So they go on the hunt for a former CIA operative who is 41 years old, retired but not dead. He is as deadly as they come. His name is: James Ryan AKA Colt." On July 1st (Canada day), Aramis Pacitto began acting for the first time as James Ryan in a flash back scene, where Ryan says his famous line "I may be retired but I'm not dead." Since I didn't go with Aramis on that trip, I was unable to watch the scene live. But a day after it was filmed and edited I got a email from Aramis with the scene attached. That was all that was filmed in July, next was in August when Aramis and his family went to Miami, Florida. Aramis Pacitto got to drive the new Lamborghini Avantor for a scene at the end of Man Of War. 

       "It's like being in the cockpit of a stealth jet- what a rush - I don't no how I'm gonna go back," Aramis said about his experience driving the Lamborghini. Aramis and his camera crew, Delaina, Mikayla & Frank Pacitto went on a long journey in Miami to film the cinematic parts of the story. They filmed everything you  can imagine to make this film great, the only thing they were missing was the action and the introduction of the head of the CIA, Derek played by Angelo Di Pardo and Faye La Perla played by Angela Di Pardo... So that's where I come in. On

September 6th 2013, It was day 1 on the Man Of War set for me and I had to act, film & direct. It was a tough 4 hour shoot with Chika Mafiana (famous for playing Walker in "The Challenger 2") as Agent Johnathon and Aramis Pacitto as James Ryan. Before I get to the filming aspect, I forgot to mention that I was also the hair designer for the day. I had to put the gray in Aramis Pacitto's hair to make him look 41 and that took a good 20 minutes to get it perfect.

         Once the hair issue was resolved, it was time for me to act as Doctor Stoaks in the first scene of the film. So I began to run through the bushes in the forest and Aramis was the cameraman and he followed behind me, but I was so fast that I lost the cameraman and we had to do it again. I was like "THE FLASH" in that take. So after Aramis found a way to keep up with me I had to pretend to get shot and fall off the cliff. I did and it looks like I may have died, but rest assured it was only acting. Next I had to get back behind the camera and film the rest of the scene with Chika and Aramis. Chika was once again great, he was not playing Walker for the first time and was able to adjust like a snap of the finger. As for Aramis, he was also great, he pulled off playing a 41 year old like no 21 year old has done before.

        Our next filming day was September 8th with Angelo Di Pardo as CIA boss, Derek, Angela Di Pardo as Faye La Perla, me as "The man at the bar" & Aramis Pacitto as James Ryan. Angela and Angelo had instant chemistry when they were acting in their respected roles at the time. Maybe its because they're married... But it looked professionally done and we had a lot of bloopers that will be released on the DVD... DVD for us means Youtube, since we don't have the funding from our $0 production to make a real DVD. There was one blooper for me that stuck out and that was when Angelo forgot a line and sang a line from one of Duran Duran's songs called "My Own Way." After that scene was complete, Angelo's work was done, but Angela and Aramis still had a scene to do.

        It was a scene that was supposed to take place at 12am, but instead we filmed it at 10am and made it look like night... We have a lot of tricks up our sleeves. Everything went well in that scene except when Angela took a page out of the "Young and the restless" and grabbed Aramis's arm and in dramatic

Sop-opera type style and said "Denise - VAN - HOSE." But aside from that, the scene was a good dramatic scene. Next on our to do list was the final scene on our list, the ally scene with Anthony Digiovanni and Matthew Quan-Yin. Those two were playing 2 hoodlums that thought they were going to steal some old mans money, but they ended up running into James Ryan who beat the living daylights out of them with a crowbar and his Colt gun. We filmed that scene in public with weapons and this time we didn't get arrested... Thank God. "Man of War" will be released on October 4th.

- Andrew Di Pardo

PS: Aramis Pacitto himself will be writing a post on his experience next week.

Life is Hell 3: Into the Mind of Tony (2013) - SHORT FILM

Life Is Hell 3:Behind Bars original plot/Length Cancelled in favor of a new Story starring Tony Rissi

        A few months ago while filming "The Challenger 2:Unlimited," we began to write a new screenplay to close of The "Life Is Hell" film series on a high note. We came up with a story based off the time when Aramis Pacitto and I got arrested, the script itself was way funnier than both "Life Is Hell" films. We originally planned to film it right after "The Challenger 2" was released. But that didn't happen because we came up with an amazing script for "The Challenger 3:Urban Outlaw," and we went ahead and began filming it. So "Life Is Hell 3" was delayed and there was always some doubt in our minds if it would ever get made. So we talked about it and even though we really liked the script, based off how good of a response we got to "The Challenger 2," we decided to scrap the idea and continue with the Challenger series.

        But Aramis did film real life footage of Tony Rissi that was 10 times funnier than our previous LIH films and we have now decided that the footage of Tony will be released and titled "Into the Mind of Tony."This film is going to still feature our setup story for the "Life Will Be Hell" film where we meet Agent Stone. The length of "Life Is Hell:Into the mind of Tony" will be a very short film between 3 to 5 minutes. I hope that one day we will revisit the script for "Life Is Hell 3:Behind Bars," because we had some hilarious footage of Sacko (Tony's father) that should, along with the film, see the light of day at some point.

A release date for "Into The Mind Of Tony" is still unknown at the moment, but it will be released before the year ends.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 2:UNLIMITED

The Challenger 2: UNLIMITED - FILM (2013)

THE CHALLENGER 2:UNLIMITED - February to August 2013

                    In early February, Aramis Pacitto and I decided that we would do a sequel to "The Challenger - Short Film." We had a few variations of the story, but after several re-writes we decided that we wanted to take "The Challenger" film series in a totally different direction than the first one. "The Challenger" is meant to be a drama not a comedy and we wanted to make sure that we really showed that in the second one... Because face it, the first Challenger was a better comedy than both our "Life Is hell" films. So we continued to talk about a interesting and dramatic (but not over the top) story. We looked back at the scrapped variations of "The Challenger 2" and pulled ideas from it and shaped it into something we could use.  Our main story idea that we had in those scripts was that Ricci JR was out for revenge against Sledge for the murder of his father... We kept that idea and decided that Ricci would hire a hitman. But who is this hitman? Aramis came up with a interesting name for the hitman, Walker.

        Then we thought about how this character would be... We wanted him to be a tough guy who could pretty much kill Sledge by himself.  Aramis's main goal for this film was to show the difference between Sledge as the vigilante known as "The Challenger" & Sledge as a cop. As for my goal... I wanted to move my character, Gunnerson away from his comedic/goofy version that we saw in the first one to more of a serious cop. Aramis also wanted to show Mora in this film apposed to me doing the sound over voice like in the first one...I was fired. But before we got to who would play who, we needed a script...Aramis insisted on writing it on his own and by the end of March we had a script ready to go. Our next step was casting... We casted Dino Mazza as Antonio Ricci JR, Mike Covello as Mora, Chika Mafina as Walker and a few more people for minor roles.

         By April 28th we were ready to film. The first scene we filmed was the cold open with Matthew Quan Yin & Pranavan Seleve. They both had to play 3 different people each. But since Sledge was taking them on one by one, we were able to pull it off. I was behind the camera for this scene.The scene was a big action scene and it took 5 hours to film and by the time it was done and edited we thought to ourselves, "Wow, this is way better than The Challenger One." We believed it was the best scene we ever filmed, but little did we know that it was just going to get better. The next thing we filmed was "The hostage situation" scene on May 5th. James Dinella starred in the scene as Enzo (Hostage taker) along with Anthony Digiovanni as Baily. This is the scene where Sledge gets taken for the first time by Baily. Later that day we also filmed scene 5, where Gunnerson finds Sledges Gun and we also filmed Gunnerson on the phone with Mora by the pond.

       On May 19th it was the day where we were going to debut Mike Covello as Mora with a Lamborghini. In the script this scene was supposed to be a serious scene, but once we let Mike do improve it ended up becoming a funny scene. Thats fine, there's always room for comedy in drama shows. Mike was good, I will always remember filming that scene... Especially since Mike put his reading glasses under his sun glasses, a moment Aramis and I refer to as the "double glasses" scene. Mike was good and funny which works for the Mora we are displaying in this film. The scene was basically about Mora telling Sledge about Ricci and that the Challenger vigilante is a killer. You guys can expect to see more of Mike in "The Challenger 3." On May 27th, it was Gunnersons turn to become the Vigilante. I acted as Gunnerson on the edge as he was out looking for Sledge. A week later, it was the highlight of filming... Chika Mafiana as Walker. This scene we have Sledge chained to the wall and Walker is torturing him and killing people in front of him. Chikas performance in that scene was some of the best acting I've ever seen. He reminded me of Django mixed with the Joker from Batman.

          After that scene we took a week off and got prepared to film the final battle between Walker and Sledge on June 17th. This scene just like the prologue took a while because it was a big action packed battle. Chika and Aramis were both great in that scene, but I can't revel much about the content at the moment... All I will say is that its a great ending to "The Challenger 2" that will set up "The Challenger 3" in a way. On June 25th we were back and filming this time with Dino Mazza as Ricci along with Chika Mafiana and Angelo Di Pardo as Provinzano.This scene introduces the new mafia don, Antonio Ricci Junior... But throughout the film he's refereed to as just Ricci. Dino pulled off the mob boss in a Elias (from Person of Interest)/ Tony Soprano fashion that was believable for this kind of movie. After completing the filming for that scene, Aramis went on vacation to Miami to film most of  the first installment of our new film series titled "Man Of War" which will debut in October.

     When he got back on July 14th we filmed a scene where Baily (Anthony Digiovanni) kidnapped Sledge and tied him up with twist ties in the middle of nowhere... My favorite moment of that scene is while Baily's tying up Sledge, Sledge looks to the camera with a look that says, "is this guy serious?" After completing that scene we had just two more scene to film. We started with Walker, where  he introduces himself to Sledge and the last scene we filmed was on July 28th with Sledge and Gunnerson driving to the mansion in the dodge Charger. On that day we also began filming "The Challenger 3," but the details of that story will remain unknown for now.... Filming for "The Challenger 2" is done, editing is done, all is left is to release it at 12:01am on Sunday August 8th. This film is the best film we've done so far and it's only getting better.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 2 - CAST: 
Aramis Neal Pacitto (Jim Caviezel look a like) as Detective Rick Sledge / The Challenger Andrew Di Pardo as Gunnerson Mike Covello as Mora Chika Mafiana as Walker Dino Mazza as Ricci Angelo Di Pardo as Provinzano Mikayla pacitto as The Hostage James DiNella as Enzo Anthony Digiovanni as Clifton Baily Matthew Quan Yin as Thug 1 Pranavan Selve as Thug 2

LIFE IS HELL 3 & LIFE WILL BE HELL FILMS DELAYED UNTIL 2014; FILMING FOR "THE CHALLENGER 3" BEGINS IN AUGUST

       Last night Aramis Pacitto and I were talking about the future of all our film series such as Life Is Hell 3: Behind Bars, Life Will be Hell (action spin-off of LIH) & The Challenger 3. A script has been completed for "Life Is Hell 3"  and a few scenes have been filmed. A"Life will be hell" script is in the works and casting has already been made for the film. But Aramis and I have decided that it's best to hold off on those series for now as we are going to focus on our biggest production, "The Challenger."

      The Challenger 2:Unlimited has just a few filming days remaining and will be released at the end of July or early August. Then in Augustfilming for "The Challenger 3" will begin, but it won't be completed until summer 2014. But with this early start on "The Challenger 3," we are hoping that in 2014 we will be able to get 2 Challenger films out, "The Challenger 3" in the summer and "The Challenger 4" in the winter. As for a release date for "Life Is Hell 3:Behind Bars" & "Life Will Be Hell," both will come out in 2014.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER 2,3,4 & 5 TO CONTINUE ONE BIG STORY ARCH WITH MANY TWISTS & TURNS

         With "The Challenger 2" set for release in late July the creators/actors/Filmer's & directors, Andrew Di Pardo and Aramis Neal Pacitto have decided to make plans for the future. They already wrote the script to "The Challenger 3" which takes place 5 years after "The Challenger 2," with characters like Ricci and Walker making their return. Towards the end of the third one a new twist in the "Challenger legacy" had developed with Ricci and Walker having their own side story. What the story for the third film is will not be announced until later this year. But what I can tell you is that there is a guarantee of at least 5 Challenger films and films 2 to 5 will all continue each other. Expect the 5th film to have a epic conclusion to the series.

       But for now, "The Challenger 2:Unlimited" has to be completed filming, which were about 80% done and then upon completion we will start planning for the filming of the third one. "The Challenger 3" will most likely begin filming in August of this year or sometime in March of 2014. But a 2014 release date is a guarantee and believe me, when you watch "The Challenger 2" you will want to see more of Sledge.

- Andrew Di Pardo

Release dates for our upcoming "Challenger films":

 THE CHALLENGER 2:UNLIMITED - July 2013 
 THE CHALLENGER 3 - SUMMER 2014 
THE CHALLENGER 4 - WINTER 2014 OR SUMMER 2015 
THE CHALLENGER 5 - 2015 OR 2016

The Challenger 2: Unlimited filming update

"The Challenger makes me unlimited... No rules, no limitations." - Sledge

June 6th 2013 -  We've been filming "The Challenger 2" for quite some time now, since April. So now I think its time to update everyone on what the story is and when it will be out. So basically "The Challenger 2: Unlimited" is about 2 detectives, Gunnerson and Sledge. The story focuses more on who Richard Sledge is and why he chose to be a cop and a vigilante (known as "The Challenger"). You will get to see who the Captain of the LAPD is and he goes by the name of Mora. Mora knows that Sledge is a good cop, but he doesn't know that he is also the vigilante known as "The Challenger." We also introduce a few new characters, Antonio Ricci JR, Baily, Walker & Mickey. Ricci is the boss of the Mafia and he hires Walker ( a hitman) to take down "The Challenger." Baily and Mickey help capture Sledge. Gunnersons role in this film is to find out where the mafia is keeping Sledge.

          "The Challenger 2:Unlimited" is the sequel to our first film known as "The Challenger." But this film does not have much of a connection to the first one. The film has more of a stylistic quality to it that is more of a drama/action than a comedy. This film is nearly finished filming. We may take about another 4 to 5 weeks to finish filming, but we are close and it will be released towards the final two weeks of July.

- Andrew Di Pardo

"Whos coming to save you?" - Walker

 

THE CHALLENGER 2 - CAST:

Aramis Neal Pacitto as Rick Sledge
Andrew Di Pardo as Gunnerson
Mike Covello as Mora
Chika Mafiana as Walker
Dino Mazza as Ricci
Mikayla pacitto as The Hostage
James DiNella as Mickey
Anthony Digiovanni as Baily
Matthew Quan Yin as Thug 1
Pranavan Selve as Thug 2

The Challenger by Andrew Di Pardo

            Over the course of the last 7 months, my cousin, Aramis Pacitto and I had decided to make short films based off the Tv Shows we created. It all started in December 2012 by sitting down and getting our laptops and keyboards ready to write a script for our concept for the drama series we made titled “The Challenger.” We tossed a few ideas around and then decided that we would write a script based off the pilot script that Aramis wrote. But we took a few liberties on the script and made it a little funnier than we would have liked. Our next step was casting which took about two days as we only needed three extra people aside from ourselves. Then we began to film.

            The first photo shows our character detective Richard Sledge (Played by Aramis Pacitto) on the roof with a gun. This photo is a screenshot of one of the most cinematic scenes in “The Challenger,” as he looks out at the city of Los Angeles wondering what crimes he will have to solve today. Detective Richard Sledge is well known and a well-liked detective at the LAPD, he has two sides to him. One side of Sledge is a side that all his fellow cop friends see, that side is a cop that follows the rules of the law. But the darker side that they don’t see is that he is a vigilante known as “The Challenger” who drives a 1973 Dodge Charger and he shoots first and asks questions later. In the first Challenger we don’t see the good cop side of Sledge as we made it more like a comedy about a cop takes down everyday type criminals with excessive use of force. We are currently filming “The Challenger 2:Unlimited” and we have scenes that show the good cop side of Sledge when he’s with his captain known as Mora and we see the dark Challenger side for when he’s the vigilante.

            The third photo shows me, Andrew Di Pardo as detective Ronny Gunnerson on the phone talking to his boss, Captain Mora in “The Challenger 2: Unlimited.” The character Gunnerson is a perfect example of a guy who shouldn’t be a detective. Gunnerson and Sledge are detectives that work together on most cases, but when push comes to shove it’s always Sledge that does the hard work.  In “The Challenger 2: Unlimited,” Sledge is taken hostage by one of Ricci’s (Mafia don) hitman known only as Walker. So it was up to Gunnerson to find out where Sledge is located, so he calls Mora and lets him know that he needs backup. Along the hunt for Sledge, he finds his gun and decides to take on the “Challenger” vigilante role to find him.

            The fourth photo shows Sledge hanging from the ceiling chained up by Walker the hitman. The whole purpose of this kidnapping of “The Challenger” was for Ricci to get revenge on Sledge for killing his father. This particular scene with Walker (played by Chika Mafiana) was the funniest and best scene that I ever had to film. Chika is an amazing actor and it shows in the scene that we filmed, he reminds me a bit of Django and the joker from Batman “The Dark Knight.” Chika went according to the script and even came up with a few lines of his own. For example he would tell Sledge “who’s coming to save you?” Which preluded the next scene with me as Gunnerson interrogating a guy named Baily.

            Overall, my experience in acting/filming/directing in these short films have been great.  The first Challenger we filmed was a little rushed and not down to concept, but overall it was a good experience. Acting as Gunnerson for me was tough the first time around because I didn’t know how to play the Character right, but now I got the hang of it.  Finding great actors has always been a challenge, but now we got a great actor in Chika Mafiana who we will bring back for future films. I hope I can continue to have great experiences in making these short films for years to come.

FILMING "LIFE IS HELL 2: THE INJURED MAN" - April 2013

Tony plays himself in "Life Is Hell 2"

 
      There was a time, when Aramis and I thought making a "Life is Hell" short film wasn't possible. But we put together a script and made one. It wasn't exactly down to concept, based on the fact that we only had 2 actors, but we thought it was close enough. We didn't think that we could do better... But ladies and gentlemen when we sat down and put together a "Life Is Hell 2" script we realized that we were wrong. It all started on April 2nd when we began to write the script. In the first "Life Is Hell" film we never concluded the "Rear Window" spoof and the escape of Tony's father SACKO, so we decided what better place to pick up the story than where we left off. Aramis already filmed a few shots of Tony and edited them with voice over (as seen in the "Life Is Hell - Short Film" after credit scene) and that's where it began.

      Then a few days later we filmed the follow up scene with me playing a crazy version of myself, spying on the old women who my character suspects is killing people and not just people in general, Gigolos to be specific. In the background you hear Almorindo and Gigi arguing along with an intercut scene where you see the real Almorindo washing dishes and telling Gigi to shut up. We filmed a few more scenes that day that would later have to be re-shot due to some angle issues and that we had a new idea for where my character could take a turn for the worse. Charlie Sheen meltdown ( or as Sheen calls it "Melt-forward) Style. That role for me was the funnest and most interesting role for me to play. I went for playing a crazy guy, to someone even nuttier and who tends to use the words "Self Sufficient" and "Winner" a lot.

"007"

     Another interesting part of my character in the film is that he wears a white bandana like Rambo or Simon Le Bon from 1982 (Duran Duran). Another interesting part of the plot is when I go behind the camera to film Aramis Neal Pacitto as Aramis Spear as he has to sneak into the old womens house. Aramis was wearing his  007 "Skyfall" getup for this film (grey suit) and since our BB gun was confiscated by the cops Aramis had to use Sledges gun. Back to the story, Spear sneaks into the house looks around and eventually would get tied to a chair by the owner of the house. That leads into our next spoof from the movie "Oblivion." Its completely pitch black and all of a sudden a man wearing goggles, a  cowboy hat and a cigar lights a match and says "So you're trying to kill me boy." My character does the unspeakable to try to save Aramis and it involves leaving his house.
   
         Aramis was the main cameraman in this film as he filmed the real Tony Risi who will be playing himself in this film on the hunt for his father Sacko and he filmed all the shots of me and him together. Tony Risi is a great addition to this film as we have funny scenes with him riding on his bike and stealing things from Aramis's house and so on. The only problem with Tony is that he wouldn't say any lines so I had to dubbed him. Another key part of this film is that you will see Sacko (played by Aramis) as he looks for revenge against Tony. Our soundtrack for this film will not be by Duran Duran this time, it will be by Adele. The most important this about this "Short Film" is that its not short. Its a full length 22 minute episode and all of you can watch it when it premiers next week on Youtube. Aramis calls it "Laugh out loud" comedy.

Watch "Life is Hell 2: The Injured Man" on May 1st via Youtube.

-Andrew Di Pardo

LIFE IS HELL SHORT FILM EXPERIENCE - March 2013

TORONTO,O.N-  On March 10th 2013, Aramis Neal Pacitto and I began to write a script for a "Life Is Hell" short film The script was done by the 12th and filming began on the 13th. We picked our theme and it was a song by Duran Duran called Virus and Aramis is working on a new version of the song.The first scene we filmed was THE COLD OPEN scene with a spoof on "Rear Window." Its a funny scene that you really have to see to understand. But its basically Andrew and Aramis sitting down in front of a window with Nikon cameras with 240 mm zoom lenses. Andrew claims that an elderly women has different men over every night and that she kills them. Meanwhile, Almorindo and Gigi argue in the background over dishes. Aramis did the voice for Al and I did the voice for Gigi.

      The next scene on our list was a scene where Almorindo (Aramis), opens up the blinds in the bedroom and begins to yell at his neighbor who is in the process of cutting his tomato plants. Last on our list for the day was filming a scene where I played Tony Rissi. The filming process took about 4 hours to film. Our next filming day was on Sunday March 17th. We were filming the action part of "Life Is Hell, AKA "Life Will Be Hell." Bruno Sepe was playing Cutter and Aramis Neal Pacitto was playing Aramis Spear. We filmed for about a hour and a half and after Aramis edited the scene we realized that Bruno was not going to work as Cutter. He was playing more of a traitor type of character so we made him the handler.

       So we ended up needing an extra day of filming (which was on March 21st 2013 at Yorkdale Mall). So we re-wrote the final scene and made it be Spear on the phone with a British version of Cutter. This is where it gets interesting. There was a part of the scene where Spear pulls out his gun. Someone called 9-1-1 to report it and next thing you know, the cops were following us. They followed us all the way from Yorkdale mall to my street. Then 5 cop cars swarmed all around us! 15 cops pulled out their guns and said "Put your hands up!" They didn't notice that I was in the car so I leaned forward and said, "Do I have to put my hands up to?" They said yes and told me to lean back. We ended up going to the police station for possession of weapons. Soon after, they realized that arresting us was a waste of time because we only had a BB-Gun. The charges were dropped.

       So after sitting in a cell for 3 hours we were released and now were done filming. To top off the day when we went back to get the car, the seats were ripped out and Aramis's sun glasses were in the trunk along with one of our zoom lenses and not to mention that we ended up on the 6:00 news. It was an experience that we will never forget. The "Life Is Hell- Short Film," will be released next week.

- Andrew Di Pardo

THE CHALLENGER (Short Film) - December 2012 to January 2013

           Over the years Aramis and I have always thought about the possibilities of doing a short film for our shows. We talked quite often about doing a "Life Is Hell" short film but we soon realized that without pro actors it wouldn't do the  people that the shows based off justice. The idea was ultimately scrapped. But then when "The Challenger" was created in early 2012, it opened a new door for us and since it wasn't based off real people, it was a lot easier to do and easier to make it believable.

        The idea to do a short film for this show came to us in August. But we decided not to go through with it until December 13th. On that day I looked at the pilot that Aramis wrote and took some scenes that I could see working in a cut down version of the show and put it into a script for the short film. Then the over the next couple of days Aramis and I finished the script and we were ready to go. We casted Anthony Digiovanni as Mafioso 1 and Dario Nouri Nejad as the hitman and Mafioso 2. Then we added ourselves into the mix with Aramis Pacitto as Detective Rick Sledge and me as assistant Ronny Gunnerson.  We chose the theme music right away, we chose a untitled and unreleased Duran Duran instrumental from 1989. There was even a time when we were considering using that music for the action part of "Life Is Hell" (AKA "Life Will be Hell).


                  The next step was Storyboards... Aramis took care of that and our next step was filming.The first shot we filmed was Scene 3 on December 19th, that was when Gunnerson meets Sledge. The next scene we filmed was the Cold Open scene in the Sheppard plaza on the 21st, where the Crazy Christmas robber (AKA me), ran out of the bank into a dark ally where he would get killed by Sledge. Anthony came in and filmed what we like to call, a scene that should have been left out. I think it should have been left out because it didn't go with the flow of the film. Aramis agrees and regrets his decision to keep it in the film.

        Anthony was supposed to come back for another scene but the next scene we were filming was on Christmas eve and he couldn't make it, so that's when I put on the ski mask for another scene to stand in as Mafioso 2. The other member that cancelled last second was Dario, due to reasons we can't disclose. So I called Matthew Quan Yin at about 11:00 PM and he agreed and the film went on. Our best decision in casting was to bring in Darius Ban (who was standing in for Dario) as the Hitman. Darius portrayed the role better than we thought and we are even considering bringing him back into the series as another villain, that is if we do a second Challenger. Another good piece that we added was a Frank Pacittio cameo as Mafia boss Ricci in the after credit scene.

      Other good additions to our film was Mikayla Pacittio as Camera women for scene 1 and 3 along with Angelo Di Pardo as camera man and director for scenes 4 and 7. Aramis and I even had to step behind the camera for a few scenes. A good thing to know about the filming in this film is that all the scenes where it was Sledge and no one else, that was filmed by Aramis himself.The editing for the film was done by Aramis Pacitto and it was completed on New Years and was released on Youtube on January 6th.

The main reason reason why we decided to do a short film for "The Challenger" was so that networks can see our concept of what could be a 40 minute Drama series.

- Andrew Di Pardo