Hurricane hero Marcus Frederick and his four best friends travel the city by BMX bikes, shoplift, and hang out at their bomb-shelter headquarters. But when Marcus discovers a skeleton in his own closet and a dirty secret behind his new girlfriend's door, he has to take a stand. "We go on a journey with a cocksure kid whose identity and path are suddenly destroyed, crushed - and we see him struggle to piece together a new self," says Freeman.

Freeman had five shorts to his credit by the time he finished NYU this spring and was planning to shoot Hurricane for pocket change when he submitted his thesis film, Boom, to CineBLAST, the short film compilation quarterly edited by Gil Holland. Then working as festival coordinator for the French Film Office in New York, Holland was looking to segue into producing and liked Boom enough to ask Freeman if he had a feature script. "A week after reading it I locked in the shooting budget," says Holland, who cites a single private investor in the solid six-figure range. Holland ended up making the 35mm Hurricane back-to-back with Myth America, producing partner Galt Niederhoffer's directorial debut. Holland also happened on a still of screenwriter LM Kit Carson while surfing the Web and after checking out his performance as a last-chance radical in Running on Empty, Freeman convinced him to play a similar character in Hurricane. Carson also came on as executive producer.

Hurricane's five-week shoot kicked off July 23, with Brooklyn's Williamsburg section standing in for the East Village (easier to control). Holland saved costume department outlays on the kids' trendy clothes through product placements like Polo/Ralph Lauren, Cottonmouth, and Adidas and got their bikes from Diamond Back - but he says the project's biggest coup was scoring a free Winnebago. He expects to have a rough cut this fall; rights are available.

Cast: Brendan Sexton, Jr., LM Kit Carson, Jared Harris, Lynn Cohen, Edie Falco, Heather Mattarazzo. Crew: Producers, Gill Holland, Galt Niederhoffer; Executive Producer, LM Kit Carson; Line Producer, Nadia Leonelli; Screenwriter/ Director, Morgan J. Freeman; Cinmatographer, Enrique Chediak; Production Designer, Petra Barchi; Costumes, Nancy Brous; Casting, Susan Shopmaker. Contact: Gill Holland, Posthorn Pictures, 51 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: (212) 965-0684, Fax: (212) 965-0485.

Arresting Gena - Hannah Weyer
Asbury Park - Chriss Williams
bye-bye Babushka - Rebecca Feig
Glam - Josh Evans
The House of Yes - Dan Waters
Hurricane - Morgan Freeman
In the Company of Men - Neil LaBute
The Offering - Howard Posner
The Regulars - Patrick Keegan
Yellow - Chris Chan Lee