WEST PALM BEACH – Surrounded by dozens of his comedic friends, Jim Patterson watched intently as the trailers for his upcoming movie, “The Resurrection” rolled on the wall in front of him.
He couldn’t have been more pleased.
“I think we got rave reviews,” Patterson said. “Everything was a 10 on a scale of one-to-10.”
“The Resurrection” is the third movie in Patterson’s trilogy that begins with his character’s funeral before transitioning to his his time in purgatory. “The Resurrection” picks up the story as his character is about to finally enter heaven.
“St. Peter feels that I’m so close that he sends me back down to earth and, since I did comedy, he wants me to resurrect a comic’s career,” said Patterson, who produced and acted in the film.
The comic who receives that help is played by Dean Napolitano, who also wrote the movie.
“He wanted a story about redemption,” Napolitano said. “I always thought “It’s A Wonderful Life” is such an epic movie. Basically we talked and [Patterson] said something like that, but with comedians.”
“The Resurrection” is only 30 minutes long, but it packs more than 50 actors into that half hour.
Nearly all of them are South Florida comics.
“We involved basically the whole South Florida comedy community,” Patterson said.
The production crew wasn’t nearly as large. Miguelito Lamorte, director of the first two Patterson movies, returned to direct “The Resurrection.” Lamorte’s wife, Cassandra, co-edited the film with her husband.
“This one, quality-wise, is elevated a lot higher than the other two, since the other two were very super-low budget and were more experimental and quirky,” Lamorte said.
“The Resurrection” premiere’s at The Movies of Delray on March 15. Red carpet events begin at 7 p.m. The movie screening is at 9 p.m.
At Tuesday’s trailer screening, held at Copper Blues, each comic who participated in the project received a screenshot of themselves from the movie along with two tickets to the premiere.
A limited amount of tickets for the premiere are available for the general public.
Patterson and Lamorte intend to submit the film to upcoming festivals. It is also scheduled to debut on Amazon Prime Video on April 1.
