Lady Magdalene's
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Lady Magdalene's is an independently produced feature film starring Star Trek's Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, who is also one of the film's two executive producers. The other executive producer is J. Neil Schulman, who wrote the original screenplay and was its first-time director. Both Nichelle Nichols and J. Neil Schulman were first-time feature-film producers on this production.
The film had its premiere February 2, 2008 at the San Diego Black Film Festivaland after its premiere screening, Lady Magdalene's won the festival's Best Cutting Edge Film Award.
Steve Miller, writing in a Rotten Tomatoes review, describes Lady Magdalene's as "a fun, fast-paced action comedy" that is "built like the classic comedies of the 1940s-1960s, complete with a musical number." Miller also writes, "If writers of the modern thrillers could come up with twists and misdirections even a quarter as clever as Schulman does here, I wouldn't find myself wondering if the thriller is a dead genre."
The IMDb plot summary says, "In this action comedy, Jack Goldwater, an IRS agent on loan to the Federal Air Marshal Service, is relieved of field duty after insulting a powerful U.S. Senator, and finds himself exiled to a humiliating desk job in Nevada as the federal receiver managing a legal brothel in tax default, where -- with the help of the brothel Madam, Lady Magdalene (Nichelle Nichols) -- he uncovers an Al Qaeda plot to unload a nuclear-bomb-sized crate at Hoover Dam."
The film debuts ten original songs on its soundtrack -- two of them with music and lyrics by Nichelle Nichols, two with music and lyrics by J. Neil Schulman, and three with lyrics by Schulman -- and the film also features violin performances by J. Neil Schulman's late father, violin virtuoso, Julius Schulman. The movie also features the original song "Escape," composed and performed by Schulman's daughter, Soleil O'Neal-Schulman, and two songs from his ex-wife, Kate O'Neal, one of them with her writing/performing partner, Polly Klemmer. The film's underscore and music for two of the songs for which Schulman wrote lyrics are by Daniel May. Rahn Coleman, known for his work performing with Barry White and producing Jessica Simpson, was Lady Magdalene's music supervisor, and produced four of the songs, and co-produced the song "Escape" with Daniel May.
Lady Magdalene's found itself embroiled in controversy even before it began principal photography, when the Department of Homeland Security wrote a letter to Schulman denying the production the use of the department's name or "official visual identities" in the film. Schulman replied to the department's letter, writing that the agency's notice to him represented a violation of his First Amendment rights. "Merely the claim that you have the power to restrict such official images is chilling to the process of writing and producing a movie -- and certainly to an independent film in pre-production with a start date for principal photography only six weeks away," Schulman wrote.
As well, Lady Magdalene's made entertainment news pages in papers as far-ranging as The Times of London, the Washington Times and the Detroit News when it attempted to be the first feature film to sell its distribution rights on eBay. No bids were received but the publicity resulted in distributor inquiries that as of this writing are still under consideration.
Lady Magdalene's Official Website] contains links to the movie's trailer, three music videos drawn from the production, up-to-date news and production information, and full credits for the production.
