Meet Richard Soriano | Software Engineer & Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Richard Soriano and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Richard, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

Who’d want to watch a movie about special needs adults and zombies? The French disability film, Entr’2 Marches, in Cannes would. They loved it so much that I received the best screenplay award and the actor, Joshua Warren Bush won the best actor award. It was for the movie, My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving where Charles B Unger directed it and Holly Soriano produced it and I wrote it.

The film festival director told us that he was intrigued by the trailer. (which is the first trailer I’ve ever edited in my life and I’m not even an editor) Then he requested a full-length movie with English subtitles. Over 700 more movies were submitted from all over the world but only a few were selected. He said our movie wouldn’t leave him, so he requested French subtitles in order for the rest of the film committee to view it. They all agreed that they needed it for the festival. Holly and I both attended. We received two rounds of applause and an engaging Q&A session that never seemed to end despite the late-night viewing.

The zombie story was a big risk for the movie. This wasn’t a marketing gimmick. I included the zombies because I would watch THE WALKING DEAD show every Sunday with special needs adults that I take care of. My wife, Holly loves the undead too. “It’s not just the undead, but how we react to them”, she says. In fact, our wedding cake featured the two of us, bride and groom, with a shotgun and chainsaw while zombies scaled the sides.

It would be a disservice to the guys not to include the zombies, despite some pushback from fellow filmmakers. The movie takes place around my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. That holiday also inspired me to include it because of Oprah meeting her long-lost sister on Thanksgiving Day.

Holly and I insisted that this had to be a modern story where the person with a disability possessed their own agency. RAIN MAN or I AM SAM, reflected the old story model where the ‘system’ made decisions for them. Working with many in the disability communities, we have found this to be a major complaint in movies. The movies usually ended up with a one-dimensional character, where the audience by default felt sympathy because they’re disabled and are ignorant of their own freedom of choice. A couple of scenes were recommended to be removed because they would have shown the main character doing bad things. ‘It would have made them unlikeable’, a couple of filmmakers said. Holly and I disagreed. We wanted them to be portrayed just like we are, redeemable. In real life, we all need a chance to falter and recover. In our movie, that’s where the heartstrings tug the hardest. We all go to the movies for a good cry.  I cried, when I wrote my favorite line in the movie, “With a chainsaw.”

Working with talented people and taking feedback has been key to our storytelling. That’s why when Holly and I did ten technical screenings, we listened carefully, took feedback, and reworked our movie. At the 8th screening, one lady had lumps in her throat. We were on the right track. At our cast and crew screening, two women ugly cried.

We also had our setbacks with my heart attack and the pandemic. But our love for the guys really paid off. The movie speaks deeply to the social workers, caretakers, and families of those special needs adults and mothers who understand the struggle for safety vs personal responsibility. And who doesn’t love zombies?

This will be released by Thanksgiving in 2022. Follow us on social media to stay posted.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

The best screenplay award for MY APOCALYPTIC THANKSGIVING award, has given me confidence to continue writing. I continue to grow as a writer with the wealth of experience of making our own movie at every step. Feel free to reach out and I’d gladly share my filmmaking experiences. Ideally, I’d love to be a staff writer on a comedy show. Or I’d love to be a showrunner on one of my own tv shows. It is the golden age of television.

I’m transitioning out from taking care of special needs adults and returning to my former career as a software engineer. Technology is amazing these days. It’s like we’re living in science fiction today. Science and technology are currently reshaping our society’s fabric in ways we can’t even see yet. That’s the next tv pilot that I’m currently writing.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

When friends come and visit, I like to mix it up with physical activities, and good food with a touch of Hollywood. I would begin the week’s visit with a short hike up to Griffith Park Observatory from the park. It’s a breathtaking view, especially in the early summer evenings. I’d also casually mention that some famous movies were filmed there including La La Land, Devil in the Blue Dress, Terminator, Bowfinger, and Back to the Future.

Since some of my friends are comic book and movie nerds we would chill at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose. There we’d take the obligatory photo with Spiderman and R2D2, then take our purchases to a coffee shop next door at Coffee for Sasquatch.

The Hillhurst / Hollywood area is where we would dine at Little Dom’s. The movie, We Bought a Zoo, was filmed there. That’s where Matt Damon says one of the best life advice. “Sometimes you just need 20 seconds of insane courage. And I promise you something great will come of it.” Down the street is where I asked my future wife out on our first date by the Alcove. When I asked if she’d like to go on a date, she freaked out and said, ‘Like a date-date? You’re not going to text me 600+ times.”

An outrageous breakfast can sometimes be my thing. But being more health conscious these days, I play it a lot more mildly. On Sunday morning we would attend a morning mass at Cathedral Chapel in Hollywood. It’s a heartwarming church where we were married. Then we would walk along the Venice / Santa Monica beach and watch the people build sandcastles and fumble through surfing school. Occasionally, we’d spot a dolphin swim by and check out the surfers. After a nice long walk, we hang out at the Venice Farmer’s Market and scarf down breakfast.

We would grab a healthy fish lunch at Mels Fish Shack on Jefferson, then trek it up to Kenneth Hahn Park at the top of La Brea and Slauson to have a picnic. There’s also a nice tribute statue to Reverend Martin Luther King with a gorgeous city view in the backdrop. I would point out that one of the nearby hills is where we filmed our movie, My Apocalyptic Thanksgiving. It’s where the main character, Marcus, who is in a bad mood, pushes a Korean woman around in a shopping cart. The next stop would either be Chef Marilyn’s takeout for its southern dishes or Phillip’s BBQ, which has a heavy smokey flavor. Phillip’s BBQ has a fire bbq pit next to the gas station which seems kinda dangerous to me. Or it would be Johnny’s Pastrami which has an incredible new makeover and live music on Fridays.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to dedicate this Shoutout to my wife, Holly Soriano. Early on, when we were dating, she was kind enough to watch one of my early short films, ‘Speed Mating’. That’s true love. Plus she continuously encourages me to dream big. I also lucked out that she loves Comic-con and zombies. She stuck by me throughout the entire process of our movie despite me having a heart attack, running out of money, and working around covid restrictions. She’s a real motivator with a big heart. I couldn’t have done it without her.

Website: https://www.myapocalypticthanksgiving.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myapocalypticthanks/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-soriano/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyApocalypticTh

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyApocalypticThanksgiving

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWXu0wQ60PY