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Onward & Sideways Media

vimeo.com/ondemand/21795/107533172
masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/10/actor_brad_pitt_influenced_spr.html

It was actor Brad Pitt who influenced Springfield Technical High School graduate David E. Wenzel to “put my career in my own hands.”

The member of the class of 1985 has done just that, moving his way through the entertainment industry as an actor and now as an actor and producer.

Wenzel, director of development for Onward and Sideways Productions in Hoboken, N.J., is one of the executive producers of Onward And Sideways’ a new film, "Preying For Mercy,” starring two-time Emmy Award Winner Martha Byrne and directed by Hollywood legend Bill Duke.

It became available for pay-per view on Vimeo On Demand Oct. 8.

Wenzel worked as a stand-in for Pitt in “Sleepers,” “The Devil’s Own,” “Meet Joe Black” and “Burn after Reading.”

“He talked to me about the craft and the business,” Wenzel said.

Wenzel, who now lives in Hoboken, N.J., has experience in the fields of dance and modeling and has played Hamlet seven times Off Broadway in New York City. In “Preying for Mercy” he has a minor part positioned for a bigger part in a planned follow-up series.

In the drama/thriller “Preying for Mercy,” Los Angeles Police Detective Frank Gates is a hard working cop, a loving father and husband and an all around good man. But beneath his gleaming veneer of happiness and stability lays a buried past wrought with secrets and violence.

After letting a bust go bad in New York, he fled for his life and changed his identity. Nearly 15 years later, his past has caught up with him, and the truths he worked so hard to hide are surfacing.

As he contends with an efficient and ruthless hit man sent after his family, Gates enlists the aid of his partners to put a stop to the on-coming assault. As the hit man zeros in and Gates is running out of time, he makes the only move he has left--to go on the run again, this time to secure the one secret he has left that could turn the tables around and turn him from the hunted to the hunter.

The film has been in the works for nearly two years, and “to work with Bill (Duke) and Martha (Byrne) on this level is to me most exciting,” said Wenzel, 47.

The film has been released on new media, and its distributor is taking the project for international distribution also.

Vimeo is available on such platforms as iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone,
Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Samsung TV, Samsung Blu-Ray and Panasonic Philips Smart LED TV.

The film was structured to an hour format and positioned to be developed into a series, Wenzel said. “That’s why the ending is open-ended.”

It is being shown on new media rather than in theaters because of the high cost of “going market to market, theater to theater,” he said. “That’s not economical on this kind of independent-style film…. We bring it directly to market.”

He is also working on a police drama called “Circle of Eight” for new media release.

The new media platforms are popular especially among younger audiences, he said. “Everyone is using new media components, and a lot of people are not even using television” to cut the cost of a cable bill.

The video trailer is available at vimeo.com/107533172. Viewers may go to the Vimeo on-demand link to rent or buy the film after watching the trailer.