At the 2005 CineVegas film festival, there were two movies that looked like they could very well represent the future of filmmaking in Vegas: Standing Still and Vegas Baby, from new local production company Insomnia Entertainment. Backed by former Golden Nugget owners Tim Poster and Tom Breitling, as well as the Station Casinos-owning Fertitta brothers, Insomnia had real financing and were able to attract some semi-recognizable stars (James Van Der Beek, Kal Penn, Mena Suvari) for their debut films. They had announced plans for a slew of other productions beyond these initial offerings.
I went in with high hopes of witnessing a new era in local film, and came out of both screenings sorely disappointed. Standing Still was a well-meaning dramedy with some serious structural issues, and Vegas Baby was a crass, unfunny comedy strung together with product placement and lame frat-boy humor. I took no pleasure in writing negative reviews of both films.
Instead of a bump along the road, though, these inauspicious early offerings ended up sounding the death knell for Insomnia. There’s a sweet irony now in reading the two angry e-mails I received from Trent Othick, the company’s president and the producer of the two films. “As far as Vegas Baby goes,” he wrote me, “there were five major Studios present at the Premiere the other night who want the movie.” It ended up going straight to DVD nearly a year later under the title Bachelor Party Vegas. Standing Still received a very limited theatrical release around the same time. “Go f--k yourself pal,” Othick wrote. “The good news for me is your reviews have absolutely no credibility in Hollywood as you are just a very small time local writer who obviously has some serious jealousy issues.” Insomnia’s website was last updated in April 2006. They have no projects listed in development. –Josh Bell