“Expiration Date” Kicks Off Theatrical Release With Outdoor Screening at Hollywood Forever Cemetary

Seattle-based independent filmmaker Rick Stevenson’s poignant and offbeat romantic comedy about life, death, love… and milk, opens in Los Angeles September 15 at the Landmark Theater Westside Pavilion. The prior evening — Thursday, September 14 — the film will be screened for the public on the grounds of the historic Hollywood Forever Cemetery located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard. The screening begins at 7:30 pm, and tickets are $10 per person. Tickets may be purchased online at www.expirationdatethemovie.com. The screening will be followed by a meet-and-greet with the filmmaker and members of the cast, as well as a special performance of Native American hoop dances by one of the film’s teenaged co-stars, five-time World Hoop Dance Champion Nakotah LaRance.

A romantic fable of sweetly odd proportions, “Expiration Date” tells the tale of Charlie Silver Cloud III (Robert A. Guthrie), a young man with a heavy ancestral weight on his shoulders. The men of his family carry a genetic curse; his grandfather and father both were killed on their 25th birthdays… by fast-moving milk trucks.

Charlie is on the cusp of his 25th birthday and, presumably, the day of his death. Living in Seattle and slinging espresso at The Alibi (an indie-café as eclectic as its clientele), Charlie has accepted his fate and makes preparations for the inevitable, marking each “arrangement” off his to-do list. While his mother, Lucille (Dee Wallace of “ET”), refuses to accept her son’s fate and red-lines the city map with milk truck routes and dangerous delivery convergence zones, Charlie is just trying to take care of everything so that she won’t have to. While searching for a reasonably priced casket, Charlie encounters the presumed-to-be-also-dying Bessie (Sascha Knopf), along with her precocious dog, Roadkill.

Bessie’s take on dying, and Charlie’s refusal to try living, that draws the two together at first. But when Charlie discovers Bessie’s hidden truth and Bessie discovers Charlie’s hidden agenda, things begin to get out of hand. As the deadline for Charlie’s death draws dangerously close, Charlie realizes he has only one choice left to make — either face his fears head-on, or allow milk (and the truck it comes in) stop him forever.

Written and Directed by Rick Stevenson, “Expiration Date” stars Robert A. Guthrie as Charlie Silver Cloud III, Sascha Knopf as Bessie Anderson, Dee Wallace as Lucille Silver Cloud, Ben Ratner as Lazar and David Keith as Wild William. Produced by John Forsen and Rick Stevenson. 94 min. 2005. Stereo sound, in English. For further information, go to www.ExpirationDateTheMovie.com

WINNER OF THE FOLLOWING AWARDS:
WINNER – Audience Award – Sedona Film Festival
WINNER – Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize – Omaha Film Festival
WINNER – Method Fest
WINNER – Spiritual Cinema Festival-at-Sea
SPECIAL RECOGNITION – Stony Brook Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Palm Springs International Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Seattle Film Festival
OFFICIAL SELECTION – Montreal World Festival

The cemetery of choice for the founders of Hollywood’s great studios, as well as writers, directors and performers, Hollywood Forever Cemetery is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Each year, visitors from all over the world pay their respects to Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino, Hattie McDaniel, Douglas Fairbanks, and hundreds more of Hollywood’s greatest stars.