Summer 2017, my old roommate Jared Cohn(Jailbait, Atlantic Rim) and I got hired by Cleopatra Records to make a low budget Lynyrd Skynyrd movie. Our budget was nothing and we had to shoot with non-union actors. I really wish this was something we could have had $10MM+ for but we did the best we could with what we had. Shortly after wrapping the project, a judge ruled in favor of Judy Van Zant to halt post production. Around a year later a judge ruled we could proceed with post.

What we ended up with was a watered down Skynyrd movie will very little original music kind of like what happened with the Jimi Hendrix movie. At the screenings it has received positive responses.

It was still a wild movie to make and enjoyed the project. If I remember correctly my merkin budget was around $2500. Release date is June 30 I believe.

We did film the band playing a lot of songs in the event we were able to get the licenses so the footage exists. After it is released I will try to find a way to host the video without it getting taken down due to copyright issues. The cast actually played their own instruments and sang the vocals when we recorded.

By strange coincidence, my merkin budget is also $2,500.