S&A's Tambay first told us about writer/director Annette Haywood Carter's film Savannah, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jim Caviezel, nearly a year ago. The film went into production shortly after that, and then the Savannah trail went cold. Looking at this marketing teaser/trailer I was able to dig up, it's kind of easy to see why.
When it was announced, the following details were provided:
Caviezel will star as the real-life, “well-educated, eccentric, larger-than-life hunter” named Ward Allen who develops a unique friendship with a freed slave named Christmas Moultrie, played by Ejiofor.
The film is loosely based on a book by John Eugene Cay, Jr., titled, Ducks, Dogs and Friends, which tells the story of Christmas Moultrie (the last slave born on the historical Mulberry Grove Plantation, where the Cotton Gin was invented), who hunted on the Savannah River, together with Ward Allen, and his Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.
From what I have been able to learn, filming on Savannah wrapped fairly quickly. So quickly, in fact, that some Savannah, GA locals were surprised to see the film's teaser/trailer when it hit the Net in early March of this year, as they reportedly could still spot remnants of the film's production around town, and thought they were still filming.
The IMDb page for Savannah indicates a 2012 release. Maybe on DVD . . . overseas.
I guess the teaser/trailer for Savannah isn't exactly horrible; I mean, we've seen worse. But I truly believe that Ejiofor and Caviezel, as well as the supporting actors on this project, are very capable actors when given the right material. They should not be blamed for what you're about to see.