Bruce Dern/David Winning Film 'SWAMP DEVIL' Premieres on SCI FI CHANNEL

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2008

CALGARY -- Filmmaker David Winning (Andromeda, Stargate: Atlantis, Blood Ties) directed the Canadian feature film SWAMP DEVIL starring Bruce Dern which Premieres on SCI FI CHANNEL, Sunday October 12, 2008 in primetime at 9/8C. The film previously won the Best Foreign Feature film award at this year's Big Island Film Festival in Waikoloa, Hawaii and the director was also honoured there with a Special Career award. SWAMP also won Platinum for Directing in Texas this year at the Houston International Film Festival. The film was produced in Montreal by Muse Entertainment and RHI Films, New York.

Bruce Dern of "Coming Home", "BIG LOVE", and "Silent Running" fame and director Winning collaborated on this new monster movie SWAMP DEVIL. The southern bogs are among the most amazing of all the habitats on Earth, a mile-wide slow-moving river of grass and decay, home to an amazing array of wildlife. Some wilder than others. Responding to a call that her estranged father, Howard (Dern), is dying, Melanie Blaime (Cindy Sampson -The Last Kiss, Proof of Lies) returns home to the nearly deserted small southern town of Gibbington. She's discovers he's also a suspect. But when the sheriff is attacked and killed, it is clear that the culprit is someone, or something else. And there's something funny about that swampO If a foul vine-choked mass of mud and earth rises from a swamp and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? A fun, tense and campy monster pic.

Part of the team's success in dealing with these sorts of challenges, comes from the strong leadership and skills of Director David Winning. "David is so well prepared and bright and ahead of the curve. He knows exactly what he wants and can transfer that in his head in two seconds. He'll make the rain work. He never panics. One of the most important things in filmmaking is the leadership at the top. Here it's as good as you'll ever see," says veteran actor and star, Bruce Dern.

David Winning says, "There's nothing scarier than the deep woods - it's kind of where I started making movies - and its rich with very primeval fears. I was thrilled to be working with the veteran actor Bruce Dern. In the 1970's, I was memorably affected by his performance as Freeman Lowell alone with the robot drones and the domed spaceship forests in the science fiction classic Silent Running. I think his performance as the guilt-ridden Howard Blaime fighting a monster in the swamp, all the while trying to repair his shattered relationship with his daughter, and then save her life - is pretty powerful."

Directing film and television for over twenty years; this production marks Winning's Thirteenth feature. He is also a veteran of 20 Series and over 90 episodes for TV, including Stargate: Atlantis and multiple seasons on Andromeda w/ Kevin Sorbo. He was the 2002 recipient of the Director's Guild of Canada's National Award for Excellence in Television Drama; nominated again in 2006. Winning also spent four months in Hungary shooting the ABC family series Dinotopia; now released on DVD. Recently he directed PAST SINS for Lifetime starring Young & Restless' Lauralee Bell and Rebecca Jenkins -- and episodes of the new LIFETIME TV Vampire series BLOOD TIES. Winning is repped by manager Jeff Aghassi in LA. In Canada by Anna Archer/Lucas Talent.