Brave New Jersey, a comedy about a small town unhinged by Orson Welles’ 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, will have its debut on October 15 at the Austin Film Festival.
Directed by Jody Lambert (People Like Us) and co-written by Lambert and Michael Dowling, the film stars Tony Hale (Veep, Sanjay and Craig), Anna Camp (The Good Wife) and Heather Burns (Save Me). Rounding out the cast are Dan Bakkedahl, Sam Jaeger, Mel Rodriguez, and Erika Alexander.
“The night of the War of the Worlds radio broadcast is one of the great, true bizarre American stories,” Lambert said a statement accompanying the release. “It always seemed insane to me (and co-writer Michael Dowling) that no one had ever made a feature film about it. There were a few made-for-TV movies over the years… but they focused equally on Orson Welles in the studio, recording the radio show. To us, the most interesting version of the story was about the people who heard the broadcast, believed it, and thought they had one night to live before Martians killed them all.”
Last year, Lambert raised more than $50,000 through Kickstarter toward the making of the movie.
Much of the film was shot in west Tennessee with locations including Maura City and Green Frog Farm in Alamo.
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