'OLD FASHIONED' Romance Is a New Hit

Love is in, and a new movie about it is breaking records and turning heads. OLD FASHIONED an upstart, indie romantic drama about respect in romance sold out theaters, drew spontaneous applause at the end and, according to Box Office Mojo, holds the new record as best-performing Christian film in fewer than 300 theaters. In 224 theaters, OLD FASHIONED exceeded $1 million for the four-day holiday weekend. Viewers on Rotten Tomatoes rated it a positive 96 percent.

"People are saying it's a good and refreshing story well told-and that the cinematography makes them fall in love with Ohio, as well as Clay and Amber," OLD FASHIONED writer, director, and star Rik Swartzwelder said. Swartzwelder knew nothing of FIFTY SHADES when he began his screenplay, but its release was deliberately timed to show a contrast in the films' two messages. "We wanted to make a modern love story with timeless meaning," he said. "Two wounded souls well past their 20s-or their first loves-are trying to do love right this time around. Based on the spontaneous applause at sold-out shows all across the country, it's clear there's an audience for this kind of story."

At weekend's start, Super Bowl winning Coach Tony Dungy posted to Facebook, "If you're going to the movies this weekend with your wife, take her to see Old Fashioned. This is a story about how a man really wins a woman."

A romantic-drama, OLD FASHIONED centers on Clay Walsh, a former frat boy who gives up his carousing and now runs an antique shop in a small Midwestern college town. There, he has become notorious for his lofty and outdated theories on love and romance as well as for his devout belief in God. When Amber Hewson a free-spirited young woman with a restless soul, drifts into the area and rents the apartment above his shop, she finds herself surprisingly drawn to his strong faith and noble ideas, which are new and intriguing to her. And Clay, though he tries to fight and deny it, simply cannot resist being attracted to her spontaneous and passionate embrace of life. Ultimately, Clay must step out from behind his relational theories and Amber must overcome her own fears and deep wounds as the two of them, together, attempt the impossible: an "old-fashioned" and God-honoring courtship in contemporary America.

Besides Swartzwelder (THE LEAST OF THESE, WAR PRAYER), OLD FASHIONED features Elizabeth Ann Roberts (Criminal Minds, Southland, CSI), Dorothy Silver (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES), Tyler Hollinger (BLACK DOG, RED DOG; TRUST ME, I'M A LIFEGUARD; Taxi Brooklyn; What Would You Do?), LeJon Woods (HOMEMAKERS, TOMORROW YOU'RE GONE), Nini Hadjis (CROSS-EYED DINNER THEATER PRESENTS!, FOCUS ON ME), Maryann Nagel (INTO THE STORM, TRUE NATURE), Joseph Bonamico (Miami Vice, The Light of Day, Unsolved Mysteries), Lindsay Heath, Anne Marie Nestor (TURBINE, One Life to Live, The Onion News Network) and Ange'le Perez.

OLD FASHIONED is produced by Swartzwelder's Skoche Films, Nathan Nazario of Motion Picture Pro Studios, Dave DeBorde and Nini Hadjis. Freestyle Releasing distributed.

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