"Americans are more aware of child prostitution in the third world than in their own cities," Glenn Klinker (Dark Justice) says. His sophomore feature, The Nickel Children, stars Tamara Hope (The Deep End) and Reiley McClendon (Fly Boys) as young runaways determined to survive with dignity but losing ground every day. "[The film] opens your eyes to how innocent kids are lured into life on the street," Klinker says. "Their destiny is pretty obviously predetermined. I was talking to [L.A. organization] Children of the Night, and I met a girl who was a child prostitute and is a lawyer now — but nine out of 10 of her friends are dead."
Klinker, 34, spent two years in a Temple University film program before heading to Hollywood to steep himself in production. "That's where I learned everything I know about filmmaking. I did every job I could to stand next to the director," he says. Producer Ryan R. Johnson says that Nickel makes Thirteen look like an after-school special. He had had the Eric Litra script on his shelf for eight years when he launched Pretty Dangerous Films last spring with partner Kevin Ragsdale after six years working his way up through Peter Guber's Mandalay Entertainment. "It was the one I always remembered and compared to everything else out there that got labeled "edgy" or "groundbreaking," he says. Johnson cites the budget as "well under the $2-million mark. We've got a fund that covers genre stuff horror and thrillers and gap financing for the high art no one else will touch." (Pretty Dangerous is a partner with Muse Films on Asia Argento's adaptation of JT Leroy's story collection The Heart Is Deceitful above All Things, also in postproduction.)
The 35mm Nickel shot in L.A. in November with John S. Bartley (The Matthew Shepard Story) as d.p. Also in the cast are Jeremy Sisto, Tom Sizemore, Mark Boone, Jr., Max Perlich, Maeve Quinlan and Marsha Thomason.
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THE NICKEL CHILDREN