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 (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

THE CREATION OF "The Challenger" - JANUARY 2012

             In early January 2012, the creation of the Challenger began just as Life Is Hell began and that was by watching TV.  Aramis Pacitto spoke to me one night about how all cop shows such as all the CSI, Rookie blue, Flashpoint and more, are all the same type of shows with different characters and the same story over and over again. Aramis and I felt that cop shows were done to death. "Andrew you know what we should do?," Aramis told me. "We should do a new type of cop show with, get this, a cop that stands for law and order and will do anything to stop criminals, even if it means to kill them." I liked the idea and he ran with it. He came up with the main character, who is a 6 foot 3 and was an ex-Green Beret who had a type of personality like Clint Eastwood from Dirty Harry and Jack Reacher from the novels. This characters name is Rick Sledge.

            The boss for Sledge was named Captain Mora. Mora is an elderly man who's first name isn't known (for now), and hes been in the force for his entire life and knows the ins and outs of the industry. Sledge is often question about his morals by Captain Mora due to the fact that Sledge takes the law into his own hands.

         Aramis had a first name for Sledges asssistant, Ronnie, but he didn't have a last name. Then while watching the Toronto Maple Leafs versus the Montreal Canadiens, we came up with a name based off of the Leafs defenseman named Gunnerson. We both liked the name and there he was Ronnie Gunnersson. "Ronny Gunnerson has just been newly promoted from Officer to Detective, he is Capt. Mora's solution to try and keep Sledge on the straight and narrow line of the law,"it says in The Challengers Synopsis. The comedic aspect is where I shed my light on the story especially when it comes to Sledges neighbours, Mr. & Mrs Johnson. With there one way glass and there tendency to spy on Sledge and watch his every move. They often complain about how Sledge acts and parks and they aren't afraid to call the cops on him. But the cops could care less about the complaints.

        That's all I'm willing to tell you for now. But be sure to watch our upcoming short Film on "The Challenger" Starring Aramis Pacitto as Rick Sledge and Andrew Di Pardo as Ronnie Gunnerson. Filming for the short film begins tomorrow and the final product will be released sometime next year.

Andrew Di Pardo