Copious Notes

Unrequited, the feature film debut by Lexington-based director Jason Epperson and starring Twilight‘s Michael Welch, is headed to Cannes, France, and then Kentucky.

It will be screened at the Cannes Film Festival and Film Market on Thursday. It is not an official selection of the festival, but will be shown during Cannes and potentially be seen by influential people in the film industry.

Then, in June, it will have its official premiere in Lexington the week of June 14. Producer Jeff Day said the date is not settled because they are trying to coordinate schedules with Welch, co-star Sarah Habel and the Kentucky Theatre.

The movie, a suspense film about a young man who takes his ex-girlfriend hostage after his life falls apart, was filmed in Central Kentucky last summer. It was an independent production by Lucky Day Studios, co-owned by Asbury College assistant professor of communications Jeff Day and 13th District Commonwealth Attorney Tom Lockridge, with hopes to secure distribution after the film was finished.

The film has been picked up by Archlight Films, the distributor of films such as Crash, the 2006 Academy Award winner for best picture. Day says plans are to enter the movie in a number of film festivals before a general release.

They were going with the rain plan.

With just five days left to film, the cast and crew of Unrequited faced something they have not seen much of in the previous three weeks of filming the teen psychological thriller in Central Kentucky: precipitation. But that meant they could easily adjust to shoot a key interior scene between troubled Ben Jacobs and his ex-girlfriend Jessica Morgan.

This didn’t faze actors Michael Welch and Sarah Habel.

“We’ve got some important stuff to do today,” Habel, who just came downstairs in the secluded Scott County home where they have been filming, cheerfully saids to director Jason Epperson.

Unrequited is an important film to most everyone involved.

For Kentucky-based Lucky Day Studios, it will be the debut feature that they hope will show they are capable of making high quality films.

For Winchester native Epperson, it will be his debut feature after making a name for himself nationwide as the first runner up on the Fox film director series On the Lot.

For Welch, it’s a chance to take the lead after getting on many movie fans’ radars with his supporting role in Twilight, and fellow actors such as Habel also hope to turn heads with their performances in the gritty drama.

And for much of the Kentucky-based crew, its a chance to put their best feet forward as brand new tax incentives could potentially start attracting more film work to Kentucky.

“The crew senses this is something meaningful,” Epperson says. “We want to all be successful together.”

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