25K to cause a bang at Oxford Film Festival

The new feature film “25K” features up-and-coming actor and University student, Houston Nutt Jr. shirtless and bleeding.

The movie poster simply reads: “Money.Guns.Trouble.” 

Nutt and Billy Chase Goforth, “25K” writer, director and fellow actor, wear "no-funny-business" expressions and carry weapons with flames hiding two mysterious faces behind them.

The poster gives a simple but straightforward description: “Two bail recovery agents encounter drug runners, corrupt cops and other trouble when they find a treasure map promising $25,000.” 

Everything about this movie screams action and adventure.

“We haven’t seen a story in a while set in the dusty, hot south,” Goforth said. “So I thought let’s make a movie like 'Walking Tall,' or 'White Lightning,' or one of those awful Burt Reynolds movies from the early ‘70s.” 

The plot formed from stories circulating about drug-runners along the back roads of Arkansas and Mississippi.

“A lot of those stories and rumors kind of fed the script,” Goforth said. 

Goforth’s brother actually designed the movie poster.

“I told him to design a box that looks like a video box at Blockbuster that mom would never let you rent,” he said.

Films that premiere in festivals sometimes have bad reputations, but Goforth and his team have reached a new level of low-budget entertainment with “25K.”

“If you’ve got a part-time job and a dream right now, you can afford to make a movie,” Goforth said in regards to the movie’s budget. 

Goforth would not divulge the actual price of the film production but confirmed that “25K” was a low-budget film. He found the low cost of production essential when deciding to make the movie. 

“Literally, within the past two years, you can go into Best Buy and buy everything you need to make a movie when before that equipment was out of reach,” Goforth said. “I started looking at the equipment, figuring out what we could really do and how much money it would take. All of a sudden, it seemed doable. And I thought, I’m not really going to be happy until I make a movie myself. We shot on a Canon 7D DLSR, that’s really made for still photos but you can shoot it now with a film lens.”

Goforth expects more showings of 25K in various other southern festivals in the future. 

“‘25K’ has a fun story – It has shoot ‘em up scenes; It’s got some good funny dialogue,” Nutt said. “I think it’s a fun movie a young person can watch with just popcorn and a coke and enjoy it.”

And with one movie under his belt, Goforth said he is not quite ready to retire.

“We made one, and it was so much fun doing it that we’re going to have to make another,” Goforth said. “It’s the best kind of awful movie ever, and I hope a bunch of students see it.”

"25K" opened at Oxford Film Festival this past weekend and plans on traveling the film festival circuit in the coming months.