Very excited for my friend Thomas J. Churchill aka "Church", a multi award-winning filmmaker that I can't wait to work with on some of his upcoming projects! Church made a much anticipated appearance at the popular Born to Ride TV & Magazine 20th Anniversary Party at the Harley Davidson of Brandon dealership in Tampa, Florida this Sunday, November 22nd.
Also in attendance was talented scream queen and award-winning actress Krista Grotte, who just shot three of Church's films-Lazarus: Apocalypse, The Emerging Past and the upcoming Checkpoint, which got a lot of well deserved buzz at AFM. The film stars William Forsythe (The Rock), Bill Goldberg (The Longest Yard), Kenny Johnson (Bates Motel), Tyler Mane (X-Men), Mel Novak (Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance) and many more.
Checkpoint is a very timely film considering all that is going on in the world today. This film is about a sleeper cell terrorist plot that is discovered in a small town where everyone knows one another, or so they thought they did. As justice seems lost, when an insurgent attack threatens to escalate into a full-blown invasion of the US, a team of unlikely heroes must rise up to fight the enemy and protect their beloved country.
"I'm so happy to be here. Kudos to Ron Galetti, the founder of Born to Ride TV & Magazine. I'm also very excited about Checkpoint," said Church.
"The idea of Checkpoint was something that has been with me since 1987. At one time, I wanted to be in the service as my father, uncles, grandfather and even my brother served our country. But I realized that it takes a very special kind of person to wear the uniform and defend their country. At that time in my life, my mind drifted more to the cinema and I wanted to make movies…where people can escape their worries and problems and lose themselves for a bit and get caught up in the world of cinema. I had written many scripts and produced/directed a few films. But nothing compared to where my mind would go with Checkpoint," he added.
Other projects this multi-talented filmmaker has worked on are the two time award-winning retro-film noir zombie epic-Lazarus: Apocalypse starring James Duval (Independence Day), which won best horror film at The New York City International Film Festival. He also wrote, produced, directed and starred in the eight-time award-winning horror film The Emerging Past Director's Cut. He also produced and portrayed the sheriff in the indie film Mr. Hush. Church was also seen by millions on the SyFy Network's hit series Monster Man in episode #2 titled The Forbidden Werewolf. This talented multi-hyphenate had a memorable role in the new cult classic Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance with a talented ensemble cast consisting ofBai Ling (The Crow), Tommy Wiseau (The Room), Laurene Landon (Airplane 2: The Sequel), and Dawna Lee Heising (Pond Scum), and was reunited with Novak.