Hurricane Streets director Morgan J. Freeman got off the first shot of his edgy drama, Desert Blue, in the Nevada desert exactly one year after Hurricane won three prizes (directing, cinematography, and the audience award) at Sundance ’97. Also starring Brendan Sexton III, the film’s a way-post-John Hughes tale about a crew of desert kids whose lives get shaken up when the FBI quarantines their tiny town after a highway tanker spills toxic waste. Sexton finds a love interest in a bratty teen TV starlet passing through on a road trip with her travel-happy dad (John Heard) when the quarantine comes down. Christina Ricci plays a sheriff’s daughter partial to homemade explosives. Casey Affleck, Ethan Suplee, Sara Gilbert and Hurricane’s Isidra Vega round out Blue’s crew. "It’s about people shedding their superficial covers and stripping away their excess baggage and finding out what kind of person’s left," says Freeman. "After Hurricane I kept hearing, ‘Welcome to the industry, Morgan. Now we’re going to let you let us tell you what to do.’ It became a battle to make the film I wanted." Freeman, 27, says he found Blue’s desert location while shooting student shorts as a U.C. Santa Barbara undergrad. He graduated NYU’s MFA program in 1996. Blue producer Andrea Sperling says William Morris agent Cassian Elwes, who helped sell Hurricane, put financing for the new film together in one go through Hollywood Stock Exchange enterpreneur Michael Burns. A former investment banker, Burns ventured into indie production last year with Six String Samarai, a Slamdance ’98 sensation, one of four films produced under his HSX Films banner. The filmmakers are scheduling a summer finish. All domestic rights remain and new L.A.-based foreign sales entry Franchise Films is handling international rights.

Cast: Brendan Sexton III, Casey Affleck, Christina Ricci, Sara Gilbert, Ethan Suplee, Isidra Vega, Kate Hudson, John Heard. Crew: Producers, Andrea Sperling, Nadia Leonelli, Michael Burns; Co-Producer, Gill Holland; Executive Producers, Mark Butan, Leanna Creel; Screenwriter/Director, Morgan J. Freeman; Cinematographer, Enrique Chediak; Production Designer, Dave Duernberg; Editor, Sabine Hoffman. Contact: Andrea Sperling, Desert Blue LLC, 1208 South Stanley Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90019. Tel: (213) 938-2719.

All Of It - Jody Podolsky
Another Brother - Tami Gold
The Bumblebee Flies Anyway - Martin Duffy
La Cucaracha - Jack Perez
Desert Blue - Morgan J. Freeman
The Money Shot - Matt Mailer
SHOCK TV - Whitney Ransick
The Sky Is Falling - Florrie Lawrence
Snapped - Jesse Fiegelman
was once a girl... - Hellin Kay