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Escape from Heaven Contact Info
Phone: (310) 622-4148
Fax: (310) 943-2088
eMail: production@jesulu.com

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An Overview of the Production

What the A-List Are Saying

"It's a lovely script!"
Jeff Goldblum, Star of The Fly, Jurassic Park,and Independence Day

"Escape from Heaven will make an entertaining and exciting movie!"
Paul Deason, Executive Producer, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

"Although author J. Neil Schulman's novel [Escape from Heaven] has sold nowhere near Da Vinci's 50 million clip, its premise is delightfully provocative. It's all about a Los Angeles talk radio host who fields a call from God and soon finds himself on a mission of cosmic proportions. So far, only Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek's Uhura) is attached to the project, but if done well, it could hit the same comedy mark as Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life.
Film Commentator Richard Horgan, "Behind the Screens," Fandango


Taglines

What would you do if God prayed to you for help?

Sometimes even a Savior needs a savior.

Logline

In this edgy and outrageous, but ultimately reverent, comedy, adapted from J. Neil Schulman's novel, a top-rated radio talk show host is called to Heaven to meet God, buddies up with Jesus, and returns to earth on a mission to save Jesus from being seduced by Jesus' ex-wife, Satan, and manage Jesus' election campaign to win back the earth.


The Makers

J. Neil Schulman, Director, Writer, Executive Producer


"Schulman's first feature is an offbeat, sexy comedy set in a Nevada brothel that lampoons the IRS, Homeland Security, and Al-Qaeda, among others."
Review of Lady Magdalene's by Lee Michael Cohn,
Santa Monica Mirror

"The JFK episode was wonderful. It was such a good script."
Andrew Robinson, Actor, Director
Psychotronic Video interview, on J. Neil Schulman's Twilight Zone script, "Profile in Silver"

"It was an altogether amiable performance."
-Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express-News,
 review of UA Columbia Cablevision's In Recital from San Antonio,
J. Neil Schulman, Producer

"Like Ayn Rand and Robert A. Heinlein, Schulman can tell a good story!"
--Review of J. Neil Schulman's novel Alongside Night, Sunday Detroit News

"[Schulman develops a philosophy, in considerable practical detail, that we could begin living by today."
--Review of J. Neil Schulman's novel Alongside Night, Poul Anderson

"I wish, and so will many novelists, that I, or they, had thought of the idea first."
--Review of J. Neil Schulman's novel Alongside Night, Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange & Jesus of Nazareth

"Mr. Schulman is a remarkably gifted writer."
--Review of J. Neil Schulman's novel The Rainbow Cadenza, Nathaniel Branden, author of My Years With Ayn Rand

"Schulman has humour, wit and imagination."
--Review of J. Neil Schulman's novel Escape from Heaven, Colin Wilson,
author of The Outsider, After Life: Survival of the Soul, The Philosopher's Stone, The Mind Parasites & many others

 Director/Writer/Executive Producer J. Neil Schulman is the writer/director/producer of the new feature film, Lady Magdalene's, author of nine books including two Prometheus award-winning novels, Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza, short fiction, nonfiction, and screenwritings, including the CBS Twilight Zone episode "Profile in Silver." His newest novel, the hilarious fantasy Escape from Heaven, is winning high praise from luminaries such as Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, David Brin, Colin Wilson, and Piers Anthony, and early reviews are comparing it favorably with novels by Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, Robert A. Heinlein, and even the classic writings of Milton and Dante. Escape from Heaven is also forthcoming as a Graphic Novel by Scott Bieser. Neil's tenth book I MET GOD, is first appearing as an audiobook, in which Schulman discusses his progression from an atheist to a freethinker who, beginning at noon on February 18, 1997, had what he describes as an eight-hour identity merging in which God "mindmelded" with him. Neil has also been a radio talk show host, a pioneer in electronic book publishing praised by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times web site, and a producer of classical music and drama for cable television and radio.

Nichelle Nichols, "Jules," Executive Producer


From All Movie Guide:
African American actress/singer Nichelle Nichols was born in Robbins, a progressive Illinois community founded by blacks in the 1890s. Nichelle sang with the Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton bands, then performed as a single in nightclubs. Garnering acting experience in supporting roles in such films as Mister Buddwing (1965) and Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!(1966), Ms. Nichols was cast in her signature role in 1966: Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on Star Trek. Much was made in the mainstream press over the fact that here was the first TV science-fiction series to feature a black regular. Much more was made on the set of Trek by Nichols, who issued public complaints about the paucity of her character's screen time. She also seethed inwardly whenever star William Shatner, laboring under the assumption that every move he made was for the good of the series, ordered that Nichelle's lines be cut or altered because they "didn't fit her character." At the end of the first season, Nichols was poised to quit the series. She was persuaded to stay--by one of Star Trek's biggest fans: Dr. Martin Luther King, who felt that Uhura was a positive role model for black women. Before the series' three-year run was out, Nichols made television history by participating in an interracial kiss with William Shatner (though the scene itself was "fudged" so as not to offend those bigots who found such things offensive). In all her subsequent Trek endeavors, including the six theatrical features and the 1972 animated cartoon spin-off, Nichols saw to it that Uhura's contributions were of ever-increasing importance. In recent years, Nichelle Nichols has been active in several educational and pro-social organizations, and has been a guest host on the Sci-Fi cable channel's Inside Space; in 1994, she published her autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In addition to her position as an executive producer on Escape from Heaven, Nichelle Nichols will play the role of a celestial guardian whose "secret identity" is "Jules," producer of Duj Pepperman's radio talk show.


Sascha Schneider, Line Producer

Escape from Heaven's producer/UPM is Sascha Schneider, an Emmy & DGA-Award-winning producer for TV series such as ABC's Commander in Chief starring Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland, Hill Street Blues, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, The Pretender & Nash Bridges, Courtney Cox's FX series Dirt, and feature films including Police Academy 2.  His latest feature as line producer is Dragon Wars: D-War.



Decency and Movie Ratings

The film is written to seek a PG-13 rating. There are no explicit sex scenes in the movie. The "F" word is not used even once in the script.


Additional Links


Here are additional links to the pages for the novel, to the preview of Scott Bieser's graphic novel:


The Novel's Catalog Page
with reviews and endorsements:
http://www.pulpless.com/1890.html

Preview of Scott Bieser's Graphic Novel:
http://www.dujpepperman.com/jesulu/escapemovie/graphic/index.html

The Film Production Official Website:
http://www.escapefromheaven.com