TAMPA, Fla. — A filmmaker couple who had been conned out of $20,000 by a hacker have been capturing a revenge film impressed by the true crime across the Tampa Bay space in December, which additionally occurs to be the place lead actor Shane Brady grew up.
“We wanted to really have this film bleed Tampa Bay,” he mentioned. “I love coming home. I grew up in Palm Harbor.”
Brady, 36 and his fiancé, Emily Zercher, 32, are co-producing the movie, “HACKED: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma.” It’s based mostly on their 2021 home shopping for expertise in Austin, Texas, when the $20,000 down cost was stolen through wire fraud.
“The scammer was a gentleman who falsified an email that looked exactly like our title company’s email,” mentioned Brady. “It put us in damn near an impossible bind.”
Zercher mentioned whereas on an prolonged maintain with the FBI fraud division, she made some darkish feedback on the road, hoping to get consideration.
“(I spoke into the phone) ‘I’m just going to go to the hacker’s house because we had his address and I’m just going to hack him to bits. I’m going to bring a machete.’ And I’m like, ‘Did you hear that? Answer the phone,’” she mentioned. “Then we decided later on, when we cooled down, we’re going to make this a film.”
The primary 10 minutes of the movie are based mostly on true occasions, the remainder is what the couple needs they may’ve executed to the thief.
The film options iconic areas throughout Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, which embody the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor Metropolis, the Jose Gasparilla II pirate ship in downtown Tampa, Pier 60 in Clearwater and Honeymoon Island in Dunedin. The producers have acquired a $25,000 incentive from Movie Tampa Bay and have utilized for an incentive from the Go to St. Pete/Clearwater Movie Fee.
“There’s a very small target that we’re trying to hit with this film. That I believe we can hit,” mentioned Brady. “Which, is it possible to have a playful, absurdest, horror, comedy, that also has heart? I think we can do it.”
Tampa Bay radio introduced Phil Esposito is featured within the movie together with Chandler Riggs, 24, who performed Carl Grimes on “The Walking Dead” for eight seasons.
Drew Newman, the 4th technology proprietor of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co., makes a cameo in a scene shot in his historic cigar rolling room. Within the scene, characters based mostly on Brady and Zercher are sitting at cigar rolling tables when the hacker, who pretends to be a manufacturing unit employee, asks for a signature and social safety quantity. A short while later, Newman’s character asks for a similar info and the couple realizes they’ve been scammed.
That is the second film the couple has made collectively. The primary, “Breathing Happy,” was additionally shot in Tampa in 2021. Brady mentioned he hopes to launch “HACKED: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma” subsequent Halloween.
“You’re going to have to watch the film to see if we got the money back, if we got the house and if the guy got arrested,” he mentioned. “I can tell you there are finite answers for all three of those.”
Article Supply and Credit score
