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Pinellas legal eagles say 'no, thanks' to film investments
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE
Published February 13, 2006
They heard the pitch. But with one exception, Pinellas County's legal elite turned their back on the Hollywood hoopla.
It was a year ago when Strata Productions, an Evanston, Ill., independent film company, began soliciting investments in Florida's legal community for Heavens Fall . The film stars Timothy Hutton in a story about the Scottsboro Nine in Alabama. The case involved a group of young black men falsely accused of gang raping two white women in 1931.
Figuring such a movie would attract legal investors, Strata producer Ben Gonzales sought out investments in southern legal circles. He got $15,000 from Largo lawyer John Trevena, former president of the Pinellas County Trial Lawyers Association.
Trevena invited Gonzales to Pinellas to make a pitch at an association meeting. Last month, Trevena got the bad news in a call from the producer. "He told me nobody invested in the movie," Trevena said. "It's a high-risk investment, especially with the way movies have been flopping lately."
Heavens Fall will premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on March 13. Trevena has been invited to the red carpet premiere, but don't expect to see him there. "It's not my kind of thing," the lawyer said.
[Last modified February 13, 2006, 00:45:19]
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