Jonathan Bucari is a young filmmaker who made his first splash in the world of cinema with a short film called It’s Nice to Meet You, which was released in April of this year.  Since then, he’s filmed a made-for-TV movie entitled The Sacrificial Lamb, which may become a TV series, and he is currently in pre-production for his first feature film, which will be called Max’s Fantastic Adventures.  Theskykid.com is very pleased that Jonathan has agreed to this exclusive interview.

Note: Within the interview, questions from theskykid.com will be represented by the letters “SK” and the answers will be indicated by “JB” for Jonathan Bucari.

To view captions on pictures within this article, just run your cursor over the picture.

SK:  Hi Jonathan, welcome to theskykid.com and thank you for agreeing to do this interview.  Before we get into your specific projects, could you give the readers of theskykid.com some idea of your background and how you decided to get involved in the film making business?

JB:  Well, I was born in Paris, France. My father is a music composer and he started to “build” my passion for films when I was very young. He’d take me to the movies every Saturday and, as a kid,  I was very happy to discover new films. We used to watch great films that I wouldn’t have discovered until much later in life if it weren’t for him. As I got older, I went to a public college in France and then I was admitted to one of the greatest film schools in Europe, the ESRA film school in Paris, France.

SK:  What is Demian Pictures and who are its principals?

JB:  Demian is my second name. I created the company in 2007 in New York.  The objective was to produce European films with an American company.  In 2009, I created the French branch to be independent of its mother company in America.  But in 2010, I merged the French branch and the American branch into one company to create Demian Pictures Inc.  Today, the company is still based in New York. While I am the owner of the company and handle the artistic side of things, I have two main associates —  one who handles the banking/accounting for the company (including film budgets) and the other who is in charge of legal matters (such as copyrights).

SK: You recently completed production on your first full length film – a made-for-TV movie called The Sacrificial Lamb.  Could you tell us a little about the film, when it will be aired and any other pertinent information about it?

JB:  The Sacrificial Lamb (TSL) is about an FBI agent who wants to take revenge on a Senator by accusing a young FBI agent of being an accomplice in the attempt to kidnap the Senator’s son. The film was shot in April 2011 in Connecticut and New York. It was one of the most ambitious and expensive projects ever undertaken for an independent TV pilot. We used advanced film equipment to create a very Hollywood-like film, but for TV. The idea is for the audience,  in their homes, to experience the pleasure and the quality of a feature film in the theater.  It should air during the winter 2011-2012 but, unfortunately, I cannot reveal the channel as we are still negotiating the terms.

 SK:  The Sacrificial Lamb is actually being considered as a TV series.  Could you talk about how that works?  What will be the determining factors in that decision — ratings of the movie or is it more than that?

JB:  Any story can be adapted or transformed into a TV series or a film depending on the concept. For TSL, the full story was so complex to tell in a film (even in two hours), that we decided to develop the concept of a TV series. The first season is about the Senator’s family and how they will pay back the FBI agent who initially took his revenge…

SK:  Who are the stars of  The Sacrificial Lamb and what was the casting process like?

JB:  Once the concept was created in December 2010, we began the casting. As the writer/director/producer of the project, I decided to do the casting myself. I had worked before with Nicole Rhatigan (who plays Agent Schneider- the lead) and I wrote the story for her.  To cast the bad guy (Agent Remington) was very difficult because I wanted an actor who could pretend to be a genius, a maniac,  a mad man, but yet a credible FBI agent.  One afternoon, after a very long day, I met Dan Berkey and, after two callbacks, he had the part.

Now the casting doesn’t stop here. My feeling is that no matter how much lines the character has, I will put the same energy into the casting of each part to find the best actor for the role.

For me, in this movie the tricky part was for the kids of the Senator, because they carry the plot. They have to fool the audience in the middle of the story. I spent a lot of weeks finding the actor who would play the older brother. One day, I was at the Broadway show Billy Elliot the Musical and I was intrigued to see on the Playbill a name that was very familiar to me: Gabriel Rush. Maybe it’s fate, because my newborn brother is also named Gabriel. I was more and more curious about him. I wanted to cast him because he was the perfect age for the part and he was an extraordinary actor. He agreed to audition for the part and I was very impressed with his acting.

Now I needed the younger brother and for that role I auditioned more than 54 children after sorting through 900 headshots and resumes. At the very end of this process, two boys had especially captured my attention and I eventually chose Ryan Jones from Connecticut (like Nicole Rhatigan). He is one of the most talented new actors I have ever seen. He is gifted. Gabriel is very well trained and has worked for years to reach that level. But Ryan was “born” to be an actor. He delivered such a great performance that all the other actors were amazed by him. Ryan and Gabriel lifted this film to a higher level.

SK: You’ve recently announced your first feature film project called Max’s Fantastic Adventures.  Without giving away too much of the plot, what’s the film about?

JB:  I would describe Max’s Fantastic Adventures as sort of a young Indiana Jones mixed with the “fantastic” of Harry Potter. It’s the story of a young boy who becomes possessed after discovering, by accident, an ancient well while he and his friends are searching for some kind of buried treasure. To save the soul of their young friend, the group will have to face the forces of darkness and overcome their fears of the supernatural.

SK:  What does the production schedule for Max’s Fantastic Adventures look like?

JB:  ”Max” is still under pre-production and the shooting should be between April and August 2012.

SK:  Any thoughts at this point on who will be in the cast?

JB:  The cast already includes Gabriel Rush. Like I said earlier, I was very impressed and curious about him and I wanted to see more. So I created Max’s story to put Gabriel and his actor friends from Billy Elliot in an adventure film.

We recently held a first reading for the film and the picture, below, is of the actors who participated in that reading.  Some of them may ultimately be cast in the film.

SK:  Both The Sacrificial Lamb and Max’s Fantastic Adventures have younger cast members featured in prominent roles and both films have Coming of Age overtones.  Do you have any thoughts on whether Coming of Age stories are better told in the independent or the mainstream cinema?

JB:  That’s a very good question and I will be thrilled if “Max” would become a major film. Coming of Age films are better told by the independent film industry for many reasons.  Hollywood does movies FOR children or WITH children, but not ABOUT children. I have seen many European and American Coming of Age films and, every time, the best of them came from the independent world. For those stories to be true and have an impact on the audience, they have to be honest and faithful to the “real” life of those kids — sometimes by using some kind of language that would never fit a Hollywood film. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean with the language of the TV series Weeds.

SK:  As TheSkyKid.com mainly focuses on Coming of Age films and promoting young talent, it would be interesting to know if you have a favorite Coming of Age film that you can recommend to the people reading this interview.

JB:  My favorite, and I think the favorite of many others, is Stand By Me. But I strongly recommend Mean Creek from Jacob Aaron Estes. It’s a great and strong film, maybe having one of the most powerful casts an Indy film can have.  Mean Creek has the most accurate depiction of teen life and adolescence I’ve ever seen in a movie.

SK:  So what’s next after Max’s Fantastic Adventures?

JB:  While there is no specific project that is definitely next, we are looking at scripts and considering the possibility of doing a sequel to “Max” or an entirely new feature film which would be a drama.

Theskykid.com will follow the progress of Max’s Fantastic Adventures from the pre-production present to chronicling the reaction of the public upon the film’s release, and much in between.  Along the way, we’ll present updates and perhaps some additional interviews with the film’s stars.

Our thanks to Jonathan Bucari for this interview and best wishes to him and his cast and crew for much success on the film.