The Gate is a new supernatural martial arts television series that features an ensemble of international action stars. The show stars Amy Johnston (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and Yayan Ruhian (The Raid: Redemption).
Filmmaker Kellie Madison (The Tank) is crowd funding this television series as many in the industry have told her…and we are paraphrasing, “Women can’t direct action.” Apparently, those people have not heard of Kathryn Bigelow, Mary Harron or Pei-pei Cheng.
“We have assembled a world-class team dedicated to the success of this series. This is a project that, with just a small contribution, fans can be a huge part of as we bring it to life as a television series,” said Madison, who released The Tank with Open Road Films and The Caul via Project Imagination.
The series flashbacks to Cassie Weston’s (Johnston) childhood days when she and her sister, Kate, are forced to the streets after her drug-addicted mother dies tragically under the control of a Haitian Voodoo Cult Leader. Cassie then makes it her life’s mission to become a vigilante crime-fighter to rid the world of the evil and avenge her mother’s death. When Indonesian crime lord, Rafael (Ruhian) gets word of her bestowed angelic powers, he quickly becomes Cassie’s worst enemy.
In just a short amount of time, Madison has been able to raise roughly $10,500, but still needs to hit $47,500, so time is counting down.
The Gate’s Kickstarter campaign has two goals in mind:
1- Raise funds to shoot a 6-minute teaser pitch to show networks the style, tone and genre of the series. Yayan, Amy, the EMC Monkeys and their
talented crew (Including George Billinger- War of the Worlds, Terminator) will rehearse fight choreography for 4 days and shoot for 3 days. In exchange for the pledges to the project, people receive rewards including, but not limited to, a one-hour martial arts lesson with Amy Johnston and a chance to watch the ACTION live by getting to be an EXTRA in the teaser!
2- Develop an audience for the TV series! If The Gate can prove to networks that a significant number of people have backed the campaign and are wanting the see the series get legs, networks will have a hard time ignoring a built-in audience.
“Recent box office numbers indicate that audiences are tiring of the prequel, sequel, remake game and are turning to television for entertainment. The Gate gives people the best of both worlds- incorporating visually cinematic action, compelling characters and original content,” says Madison.
Madison is also passionate about becoming a viable commercial director in the action genre market space. Recent media presence has indicated that women directors are stereotyped as being unable to direct action. “I’m determined to prove them wrong!” says Madison.
The Kickstarter campaign can be found at: The Gate Kickstarter