The Lost Documentaries
Whatever happened to the documentaries Lancaster and crew filmed in 2011 and 2012?
Public interest was high and fans patiently awaited the next evolution of monsterVisionTV that never came to be. But what really happened?
In 2011, the crew announced the Jimmy's Secret documentary with a wicked movie trailer and interesting stills from the film. But Jimmy's Secret remained a secret. Why?
According to the powers that be at monsterVisionTV, Jimmy's Secret filming wrapped and immediately went into pre-production. The official trailer hit the internet and the official release was drawing closer and closer. But then it disappeared.
Up until now, we never received a straight answer.
"Unfortunately, legal issues arose at the last minute that prevented us from releasing this beautiful piece of work. The property was amazing. The case was absolutely outstanding and the finished product was something we all were very proud of," said Stephen Lancaster, producer of the film.
"The entire crew busted their ass to put is bluntantly. We were fighting 115 degree weather, dehydration, and extreme fatique. Filming was very exhausting. Everybody involved gave it their all and we had some amazing talent working with us. Sadly, after all of the financing, all of the filming and all of the hard work, the owner of the property backed out and revoked permissions. It was as simple as that. It was gone," added Lancaster.
A year later in 2012, monsterVisionTV and company decided to tackle yet another large project that was actually poised for national distribution.
The crew began work on what would become Wraith, the story behind the Country Squire restaurant in Warsaw, NC.
With a bigger budget and national distribution, it finally looked like monsterVisionTV was going to recoop the loss of the previous documentary. However, once again, legal issues arose and Wraith lost it's rights to release.
"Similar to the problems we ran into with 'Jimmy's Secret,' legal issues prevented us from completing 'Wraith.' At this point I was beyond frustrated and so was the crew. This time we went bigger, had more talent... ...its was extremely disheartening. Alexia (the female lead) was absolutely amazing and it is such a shame nobody will ever be able to see that," said Lancaster.
But unlike the previous problems with Jimmy's Secret, the issues were internal.
"We had full blessing from the establishment. After filming wrapped, the crew starting falling apart. Some wanted to remain in the film, while others did not. Without completely shooting the film over, it was impossible to reach a finish product," added Lancaster.
"I get so sick of hearing that we never finish anything. Those two films had so much promise, hype and heart. People just don't understand what can and does happen in the film industry. They just don't have a clue. They sit behind the internet and think they know it all," added Lancaster.
But monsterVisionTV and company assure us that this time things are much different.
"We learned from our mistakes. This was all new to us. We were naive. With monsterVisionTV working on a reboot for this year, all of our past mistakes will be nothing but memories. This time, we've got it right and I look forward to the world finally seeing what we can do this Fall with the new documentary," said Stephen.
monsterVisionTV's released a few video segments of Wraith which can be seen below.
