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"