From James Morgart!

"Our film is titled WON TON BABY! and the shortest summary I can give to you about it is that it’s about a cannibalistic baby. It stars horror legend Debbie Rochon, Lou Martini, Jr. (THE SOPRANOS, SPIKER), scream queen Suzi Lorraine, and Gunnar Hansen (TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE). Debbie plays the lead role of Madam Won Ton – a former brothel owner who is trying to live the straight and narrow path after having transformed her brothel into a Chinese restaurant. However, her daughter Little Wing (Suzi Lorraine) is carrying a fetus-in-fetu (parasitic twin). It’s deformity that Little Wing developed while in the Madam’s womb thanks to a heavy night of drug use back in the 70s with an Elvis impersonator. After the fetus begins to give Little Wing internal pains, the Madam takes her to Dr. Kurt Severson (Gunnar Hansen) to have the fetus removed. All hell breaks loose once the fetus is removed as it needs human blood to survive.

The initial idea to make a film about a killer baby named Won Ton Baby was conceived by Suzi Lorraine. She passed the idea along to me and I spent a good six months working on the script until I felt I had not only fleshed out the characters but had also incorporated many of the horror motifs and references that horror fans love. We’ve got everything from the return of the repressed to the basement dwelling secrets to the horrible house as allegory for the human psyche – and for those appreciative of the socio-political horror from filmmakers like Romero, Craven, Gordon, etc, we’ve got our own message wrapped up in the flick. But the film also functions on the level of just a humorous movie that both parodies and pays homage to a genre I grew up obsessed with as a kid.

The makeup and fx were handled by an incredibly talented team headed up by Ingrid Okola, and featuring Paul Mafuz and Marissa Masella. Paul was also responsible for the creation of the baby – a latex and silicone doll with an attached umbilical cord. During shooting it took people to operate the baby – one to handle arm, head, and mouth movements and one to handle the umbilical cord. Thanks to the help of compositor James Todd, we were able to add some extra elements to the baby’s facial features to add an extra liveliness to it.

We shot the film over two weeks using three cameras and maintaining some rather insane hours. Several times we wrapped in the wee hours of the morning and I was up the next day with only a hour or two of rest. At one point, my car even had its passenger window smashed open by vandals hoping to lift a computer out of the passenger seat. Though my wife and I were stuck with a broken window, the vandals only made off with a computer bag filled with socks and underwear.

Shooting in the wee hours and using a puppet as our villain has made post-production a bumpy ride. We wanted to make it into the GoreZone International Film Festival last year, so we rushed a rough cut of the film and premiered it there with a great response as several people who attended it have told us on our Facebook fan page that it was, by far, their favorite film there. We’ve also aired the rough cut at A Night of Horror Film Festival in Australia and we’ve also been accepted into the Ravenna Nightmare Film Festival in Italy for this year where we hope to unveil the final cut. Our editor, Ken Yankee, has been absolutely phenomenal for us throughout the process. He’s a two-time Emmy nominated editor having worked with such talents as Brian DePalma and Rob Cohen. Without him, this project may have never gotten done as he even flew in from L.A. to help us shoot scenes for two separate nights. We’ve been extremely lucky to have him onboard.

The soundtrack has been handled by Mars of Dead House Music. He’s most well-known for his work on several H.P. Lovecraft adaptations. After speaking with him over the phone, I knew he was a perfect fit for the film. He’s read a lot about horror (any Lovecraft fan has usually read a lot about horror as well as a lot of horror fiction) and he knew exactly what I was going for in regard to this film. In the end, he recreated that 80s horror soundtrack that will remind Gen-X audiences of the horror films of the 80s put out by the legendary Anchor Bay. Just a brilliant job on his part.

Once the final cut is done, we’re hoping that all of this early buzz we’ve generated will pay off and land us a distribution deal so that fans can enjoy something that I wrote and directed with them in mind. We had so much good press so far that the film has inspired a short stop-mo animation that’s being put together by my production company in collaboration with my good friend Michael Granberry and his company Red Hatchet Films. The short is titled WON TON BABY IN ‘MIDNIGHT SNACK.’ The short will definitely add to the Won Ton Baby! legend. I’ve already seen some early footage of it, and it’s a lot like Looney Tunes meets Robot Chicken meets Cannibal Holocaust. It’s a gruesome, fun little flick that I am really hoping we can make certain we get onto the final DVD as well as air before the feature at a few festivals in the coming year. Michael is one of the most talented animators I’ve seen and his recent appointment as a fulltime animator to Robot Chicken is certainly a testament to his abilities.

For now, our teaser trailer is playing at the Wizard World Comic Con that’s traveling the country as part of the Horror Pavillion that is being run by Michael Hein and Joe Mauceri of the New York City Horror Film Fest. The trailer shows before and after the Killer Shorts Sudden Death Competition which is an on-site competition for a handful of horror shorts that viewers vote on at each convention. We plan to unveil our first full trailer at the Big Apple Comic Con in October.

Below are some links as well as a synopsis to the film. If there’s anything else I can provide you with, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Please let me know when you have it up so I can pass the word around!

Best wishes! James

http://wonton-baby.com/
(currently being remodeled – should have a new site up at the end of the month)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbqyhk_won-ton-baby-teaser-trailer_shor...

http://morgueart.com/won-ton-baby-in-midnight-snack-2010/

http://www.nychorrorfest.com/news.php

http://www.redhatchetfilms.blogspot.com/

http://www.debbierochon.com/

http://www.wizardworld.com/jamesmorgart.html

http://www.wizardworld.com/suzilorraine.html

Synopsis:

Over thirty years ago, former brothel owner, Rachel “Madam” Won Ton found herself involved with one of the wildest clients to ever enter her establishment. The drug-filled night leaves the Madam pregnant, but with no desire to let the child go, she soon quits the pandering business for a more “clean” life. Today, despite having converted her brothel into a fully-functioning Chinese restaurant, the lore of the Madam's past continues to haunt her family's life as outsiders continue to hold their unwarranted prejudices against the Won Tons. However, social scorn becomes the least of the Madam's concerns when the mother of two is faced with a greater challenge: her adult daughter, Lily, has a parasitic twin growing in her belly! When the fetus is removed, it is not only alive, it's mutated umbilical cord soon leads the way to mischievous and, ultimately, flesh-eating, gore-filled antics. The baby's mass murdering and eating of the locals forces the Madam to confront not just her deformed child but also a secret from her past that she's hidden for years. But can the Madam solve things before its too late? Or has she sealed her family's fate thanks to the release of the child?
From the twisted minds of scream queen Suzi Lorraine (Claang the Game and Holocaust, Holocaust) and first-time director James Morgart comes Won Ton Baby!, one of the most highly anticipated horror-comedy indie films of the year. A fully-developed package of drugs, sex, blood, gore, and an Elvis impersonator add up to a special delivery of laughs as Debbie Rochon (Tromeo and Juliet and Nowhere Man) and Lou Martini, Jr. (The Sopranos and Spiker) battle it out with a umbilical cord-swinging cannibalistic fetus driven by an overindulgent and unsavory sexual appetite. Right from the moment of being carved out of the belly of Suzi Lorraine by horror icon Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Won Ton Baby's antics will leave audiences feeling both delighted and violated!" LMAO!

Won Ton Baby! Teaser Trailer - on Dailymotion
www.dailymotion.com
Teaser trailer