Festival Favorite About Rock Musician - 'Midnight Reckoning' Readies October Theatrical Release

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- In Derrick Warfel's frightening but uplifting Midnight Reckoning (www.MidnightReckoning.com), daytime drama star Bruce Michael Hall makes a powerhouse feature debut as an L.A. musician with a checkered past whose own Judgment Night takes place on a fateful trip to Vegas.

When his car breaks down in the desert, Joe Manning (Hall) meets an RV full of three mysterious characters that Steven King would love, and through 86 edge-of-the-seat minutes, they help Joe confront his past and face his future in a shocking, faith-based ending.

Midnight Reckoning, which has already been shown at Cannes and snagged two Best Sci-Fi/Horror Film prizes at other festivals, opens in L.A. Oct. 1; Salt Lake City Oct. 8, and throughout Texas and other states Oct. 15.

"I read the script and was real interested in it," says Hall, whose TV career included nearly 500 episodes as Reese in Passions. "Derrick also saw the chemistry between me and Tony right away."

Tony is 6-foot-6, 350-pound Tony Longo, a longtime Hollywood favorite who plays an apocalyptic prophet and mentor called Atlas. Persia White, the glamorous star of TV's Girlfriends, is Atlas' mysterious co-pilot, while Aussie Star Grant Bowler (Connor Owens, "Ugly Betty") and former Hawaii Five-O detective Al Harrington appear and disappear in the desert and in Joe's visions. 

Warfel has the unique combination of degrees from Princeton, USC Film School, and the Dallas Theological Seminary, and is already co-producing another picture with Ken Wales, who was Producer of Amazing Grace, the hit 2006 faith-based Biopic.

Derrick made Midnight Reckoning for his own Winter Star Productions, and is, in Hall's words, "really an actor's director. And Persia White grew up singing Gospel music in church, and she worked in TV for many years, just like me."  Persia White is also a musician in her own right with a recent album.

Hall was ideal casting as Joe, since Bruce is an aspiring country musician himself between acting jobs. Bruce and twin brother Seth Hall are members of Borderline, a country band which is building a large following in his native Missouri.

"Seth and I have sung together since we were kids," says Bruce, who's already performed at Nashville's famed Wildhorse Saloon. "Our voices have that magical family blend."

SOURCE Winter Star Productions