A new documentary film about the SS. Sultana, which perished on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865 killing approximately 1,800 of her 2,427 passengers when a boiler exploded, is in the works with an anticipated release of April 2015, to denote the 150th anniversary of the tragedy.
The film is being produced by Sean Astin, best known for his performances in The Goonies, Rudy and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Other credits include: NCIS, Memphis Belle, 24 and Courage Under Fire. He lent his voice over talents to the documentary WWII in HD: The Air War, Animal Planets, Meerkat Manor and the video game Men of Valor.
Artwork for the Sultana Documentary by artist James Hance
A native Oklahoman, Mark Marshall began his career in 1978 when he joined Lucasfilm Ltd., serving as production assistant on More American Graffiti, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg. In 1984, he joined Amblin Entertainment as personal assistant to Mr. Spielberg. During that time, Marshall assisted on a varied slate of projects including Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, The Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as well as Spielberg’s television series, Amazing Stories. In 1989, Marshall joined Donner Shuler-Donner Productions as a production representative to producer/director Richard Donner on HBO’s hit series, Tales from the Crypt. During hiatus on that series, Marshall joined producer Jennie Lew Tugend as her assistant on Radio Flyer and Lethal Weapon 3. In 1992, Tugend tapped Marshall as a Producer on the Free Willy trilogy for Warner Bros. Marshall also brought his considerable post-production experience to such films as Assassins, Lightning Jack, Star Kid, Message in a Bottle, Billy Crystal’s 61*for HBO, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen’s big-screen debut, New York Minute. He also served as production manager on the Academy Award-nominated short film, Kangaroo Court, directed by Sean Astin.
Mike Marshall, general partner in River Rock Entertainment, LLC, has over twenty years of experience in the field of video production.In addition to owning his own companies, Mike has worked for three television stations. One station, licensed to a college in northeastern Oklahoma since 1987, continues to serve its viewing area as a full-power, UHF facility. Mike was the station’s first production manager. He’s taught video production and other mass communication subjects at two Oklahoma universities..
History is more than an avocation for Mike, it’s a true passion. He has produced over 200 hours of educational programming for broadcast and has co-produced a number of documentary projects. The Sultana represents the culmination of a lifetime working to preserve history.
Additional crew members include Leah Cevoli who appeared in HBO’s Deadwood; Mark Alan Ray who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and a Master’s of Education with an emphasis in History; Jeff Hoopingarner is an award winning multimedia producer/director with over twenty years of experience in video and film production. Jeff served in the United States Air Force as a combat camera videographer. Considered one of the top videographers in the military, he won many awards including 1994 military videographer of the year. He served as an assistant editor on A&E channel documentaries and worked on a variety of industrial film and video productions; and Jim Michaels, began his career Producing the NBC series, Midnight Caller. From 1993 to 1996, Michaels Co-Produced the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, as well as Nick’s Game, a one-hour drama pilot for CBS. His long list of Producing distinguished credits includes Charlie Grace and Escape From Atlantis. He also Produced the CBS series, Turks and Cover Me: Based on the True Life of an FBI Family series for the USA Network. Having established a standard of excellence, networks looked to Michaels, to produce among others The Guardian pilot for CBS, the Odyssey 5 series for Showtime and Dr. Vegas for CBS.
The group has put together a website called Sultana Documentary and launched a Kickstarter campaign that is in its final stages and needs support to reach the last $15,000 needed for production by June 5, 2014.
