Forest Hill, Maryland — The stakes turn deadly in the terrifying new thriller The Poker Club, available on DVD this April 21, 2009 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Maryland native Johnathon Schaech (Quarantine, Prom Night) stars in this suspenseful and pulse-pounding thriller, which he co-wrote and co-produced with Richard Chizmar (Masters of Horror, Fear Itself), founder of the world renowned Forest Hill, Maryland, publishing house, Cemetery Dance Publications (www.cemeterydance.com).
Based on the acclaimed novel by Ed Gorman, which Chizmar originally published, this story centers on four friends caught in a deadly game of betrayal and intrigue. This boldly original film features intense performances, taut direction and a shocking ending in which all bets are off.
Chizmar and Schaech’s next project, From A Buick 8, is an adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling thriller of the same title, which Chizmar also originally published in 2002. Chizmar and Schaech co-wrote the screenplay, which will be filmed this summer.
The Poker Club Synopsis:
For years, Aaron Tyler (Johnathon Schaech) has been getting together with his three best friends Monday nights to play poker. But tonight, everything is about to change forever when the men accidentally kill a burglar who’s broken into Aaron’s house. Fearing the consequences, Aaron and his friends dispose of the corpse and agree to take the secret to their graves. However, they soon discover someone knows what they’ve done and is now playing a murderous game of revenge with them in this horrifying thriller.
Also starring Johnny Messner (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, The Sweetest Thing), Judy Reyes (TV’s “Scrubs” and “Oz”), Lori Heuring (Prom Night, Mulholland Drive), Loren Dean (TV’s “Bones,” Gattaca) and Jana Kramer (Prom Night, Click).
The Poker Club was directed by Tim McCann, whose prior credits include Nowhere Man and Runaway, which won the Best Feature Film Award at the 2005 Austin Film Festival.
About Richard Chizmar:
Richard Chizmar is the founder and publisher/editor of Cemetery Dance magazine and the Cemetery Dance Publications book imprint in Forest Hill, Maryland. One of the longest running magazines in the horror and suspense genres, Cemetery Dance has published dozens of the bestselling authors in the horror business over the last twenty years. The company has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Locus, and many other publications. Chizmar has also edited more than a dozen anthologies, including The Best of Cemetery Dance, The Earth Strikes Back, Night Visions 10, October Dreams (with Robert Morrish).
About Johnathon Schaech:
Johnathon Schaech has appeared in Quarantine, Prom Night, 8mm 2, Hush, How to Make an American Quilt, Judas, That Thing You Do!, The Doom Generation, Forsaken, and many others. He is also an accomplished screenwriter and producer.
About Chesapeake Films:
Chesapeake Films was founded by Richard Chizmar and Johnathon Schaech, who have written screenplays and teleplays for United Artists, Showtime, Sony Screen Gems, Lions Gate, NBC, and many other companies. Their first projects include adaptations of Stephen King’s From A Buick 8, Douglas Clegg’s The Hour Before Dark, Stephen King’s and Peter Straub’s Black House, Ed Gorman’s The Poker Club, as well as episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror and NBC’s Fear Itself.
The synopsis sounds very familiar.
Based on the synopsis, title could be “I Know What You Did Last Poker Game”.
Either way, nice to see local talent.