I've been working on getting autographed copies of the novel into gift stores this summer and fall. For now, if you want a signed copy of the ONLY collector's original covers left-which have sold out very fast this summer, go to these establishments.

The Lobster Pound Gift Shop - Lincolnville

H&H Mercantile - Searsport

Bonnie's Place - Rockport

Gift Shops with the new film cover (autographed copies)

Happy Clam- Wells, ME

Holiday Inn By The Bay - Portland

Fireside Inn & Suites - Portland

Fireside Inn & Suites - Belfast

More gift stores will be added in the coming months. We're actively looking for more gift shops who want to carry signed copies so contact us if you are interested!

The 24th annual Valley Film Festival screened more than 70 films and hosted professional development panels for eight days this month. Juried Ten Degrees Hotter and audience awards were announced at a ceremony hosted at Hennessey Studios in North Hollywood’s Arts District. The district and San Fernando Valley are part of Los Angeles.

The Ten Degrees Hotter awards went to “The Ghost Trap” for best U.S. narrative feature, “Ciurè” for best international narrative feature and “American Pot Story: Oaksterdam” for best documentary feature. Short film honors from the festival went to “Broad Daylight” for best narrative short and “Speaking with the Ancestors” for best documentary short, with an honorable mention for the documentary “An Unlikely Mermaid.”

In summers, high temperatures in the daytime are around 10 degrees warmer than the rest of Los Angeles’ west side, according to Ivo Welch.

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The 2nd annual Vermont Film Festival, held from Thursday, July 25 to Sunday, July 28, was filled with three days of films. The festivities included comedic shorts, a lively DJ Dave Dance Party, an industry event, and the festival concluded with a wrap-up party on Sunday night.
Winners
Best Short Comedy
“Viva Extra” — Written and Directed by Kevin Samar

Best Short Drama
“10 Minutes to Showtime” — Written and Directed by Logan Keefe

Best Thriller
“Grafton” — Directed by Bryan Santiago

Best Documentary
“Bearing Witness: A Name And A Voice” — Directed by Dina Jane Rudick

Best Feature Comedy
“Mother Father Sister Brother Frank” — Written and Directed by Caden Douglas

Best Feature Drama
“The Ghost Trap” — Directed by James Khanlarian

Most Vermont
“Connected” — Directed by Chad Ervin

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In a scene from “The Ghost Trap” are Zak Steiner, left, and Sarah Catherine Hook. Maine Film Center photo

“THE GHOST TRAP”
I write not just for a Maine newspaper, but a central Maine newspaper, where most folks love lobster, but with prices soaring, cannot afford it. We know zip about the craft of lobstering, but come to stories about it with open eyes and hearts.

This week, I’ve been assigned  to write about “The Ghost Trap,” a film scheduled to open Wednesday July 17, at the 27th Maine International Film Festival in Waterville. It is based on the novel of the same name, by K. Stephens, and was directed by James Khanlarian, in his directorial debut. To this reviewer, Khanlarian, a young fellow, knows and loves what he’s doing. It always helps.

“The Ghost Trap” is engaging, professional and easy on the eyes. Treat it with respect. His film happens to be is set in the lobster business, about which I know less than space travel. But I used to work in the movie world, which I loved, and I am always happy to see a well-written, well-directed film, like this one.

Khanlarian  is lucky to have one set on the sea and Maine coast that is  splendidly photographed by cinematographer artists Matthias Schubert and Michael P. Tedford. It is well-made, carved by caring and professional hands, and definitely worth your attention.

This is what I learned: A lot of folks go down to the sea each morning to search for a beloved emblem of Maine — the imperial lobster, not often found on the dinner table of Maine workers.

This film is not at all about lobsters, of course, but about the men and women of the sea, who work on dangerous crafts, stand perilously close to falling in and lower wicked-looking baskets, called traps, into the sea to catch … lobsters

I learned this as well: A ghost trap is a working trap that has been lowered into the water that “catches and holds lobsters, but when cut off, with its line severed, is no longer connected to the buoy bobbing at the water’s surface, becoming a ghost trap, unseen, lost and then forgotten.”

Wow! Did I get that right?

Writer/director Khanlarians goes down to his sea each day, not to film a documentary about lobster traps, which would’t last long on Netflix, but about the dilemma of  one lobsterman, Jamie Eugley (Zak Steiner, “White Men Can’t Jump”), who is a serious  film actor with a bright future. Here, he’s a good guy and a young hero battled with enemies, such as wealthy yachters and, sadly, friends who are unhappily misinformed lobstermen and yachters in polo shirts who don’t fancy lobster boats in their blue Maine waters.

Steiner, clearly a talented and tested actor, carves his love for his girl, Anja (Greer Grammer), with gentleness, especially after a rogue wave hits his boat, knocking Anja into the water and putting her into a hospital with a brain injury.

But being folks of the sea, their love holds on.

The title, “The Ghost Trap,” I should rush to say, is a bit misleading. It’s no spook fable, and not even a documentary about lobster fishing, any more than Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” is about the boat rental business.

It’s a movie about interesting characters — played by newcomers and veterans — who happen to work in the lobster business and are caught up in a “trap war” with a rival lobstering family.

Like Hemingway’s tale, it’s a well-written story about duplicity, jealousy and trying to get though the day — to make a buck in hard times. Like Hemingway’s Harry Morgan and like you and me.

That always works when written clearly and put together properly by gifted, trained hands, as is James Khanlarian’s wonderful voyage into the choppy seas of Hollywood.

New drama/thriller starring Zak Steiner (Euphoria), Greer Grammer (Deadly Illusions), Sarah Catherine Hook (First Kill, White Lotus) and Steven Ogg (Westworld)

“THE GHOST TRAP” plays Wednesday, July 17, and Saturday, July 20, at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

Review courtesy centralmaine.com

Besides being the Centerpiece Film of The Maine International Film Festival, we will be in four other film festivals this summer. In between, K. Stephens will be doing book signings. See below for dates and times.

The drama thriller movie The Ghost Trap, which is based on the lobstering novel of the same name by Maine author and screenwriter, K. Stephens, makes its Maine premiere as the Centerpiece Film for the 2024 Maine International Film Festival (MIFF), set to take place July 12-21, 2024.
The dramatic thriller stars Zak Steiner (White Men Can’t Jump, Euphoria), Greer Grammer (Frasier, Awkward, Deadly Illusions), Sarah Catherine Hook (First Kill, The White Lotus), and Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead, Westworld). The cast is further bolstered by Taylor Takahashi (Boogie) Maine residents Xander Berkeley (The Terminator franchise, Shanghai Noon, Apollo 13), and Sarah Clarke (Twilight), as well as Billy Wirth (The Lost Boys).

The Ghost Trap features young lobsterman (Steiner) who is forced to choose between right and wrong when his girlfriend (Grammer) suffers a traumatic head injury after being swept off his boat by a rogue wave. Meanwhile, a rival lobstering family sabotages his gear, sparking a deadly trap war. Hook plays the alluring first mate on a schooner named Happy who challenges his loyalties and Ogg plays the antagonistic patriarch of the Eugley family.

The movie’s central premise, about the lives of lobstermen, is a topic Stephens has covered extensively as a journalist for the last 30 years. Her Spruce Head lobstermen friends, Ryan Post, Cheri Savage, and Dan Merriam, assisted as script consultants, location scouts, and captaining boats for shots.
The producers for The Ghost Trap include Peter A. Couture, Simon Fawcett, Larry Mortorff, Greer Grammer, Zak Steiner, James Khanlarian, and Maine locals K. Stephens Cheri Savage, and Ryan Post. The Ghost Trap is James Khanlarian’s feature directorial debut.

“In a general sense, lobstermen are territorial and justifiably suspicious of any outsider who asks too many questions about their business,” said director/producer James Khanlarian. “As expected, a bunch of Hollywood filmmakers coming into the small town of Rockland, ME to do a film about lobstermen was not met with enthusiasm. Once we showed that we were going to treat the profession with respect and portray the real virtues of lobstermen, we quickly gained the full support of the lobstering community. It was such a joy to film in Maine, where the scenery and landscape create the perfect natural setting, and to have worked with such an incredibly talented cast and crew, many from Maine. I think the entire cast wanted to move there by the end of production.”

“We are excited to screen The Ghost Trap for its Maine premiere as the Centerpiece film of the 27th Maine International Film Festival,” said Mike Perreault, executive director of the Maine Film Center. “Welcoming these talented filmmakers embodies our core mission of highlighting, supporting, and celebrating made-in-Maine film productions.”

See full article here.

We made it into Screen International's Cannes "buzz titles" list!


https://www.screendaily.com/features/cannes-2024-the-buzz-titles-from-north-america/5193348.article

Lon Haber & Co will talk up dramatic thriller The Ghost Trap, James Khanlarian’s story about a lobsterman whose fiancée is swept off the boat by a rogue wave, and who is beset by mysterious rivals. Zak Steiner, Greer Grammer, Sarah Catherine Hook and Steven Ogg star.

"A week prior to principal photography, my co-star, Greer Grammer, and myself went out for Lobster Boot Camp, where we learned how to drive boats, haul traps, band lobsters and basically live the whole Mainer life. Shout out to Ryan, Cheri and Dan the Lobster Man for taking us in with open arms and helping us out throughout the duration of shooting. But even before that, I was watching a lot of YouTube videos on lobstermen: What their day-to-day was like, how they held themselves, the dialect. Along with homework on my relationship with Jamie and other characters in the movie."

Our encore screening at RED Cinemas in Greensboro took place on April 22, 2024 at 8 p.m. wrapping up a whirlwind week of appearances, book signings, and press.

Many of the producers' friends and family live in Greensboro and so we had a big turnout and support for the film with many arriving early while K. Stephens signed books.

We invited anyone who either bought a book or just came for the show to pose with the author, cast, and producer. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

The Ghost Trap producers, James Khanlarian and Rachel Slawson with K. Stephens and Zak Steiner.

A friend from Maine, Mandie Sawyer, who has now relocated to NC, came to support K, whom she's known for 15 years. Said Mandie, "The movie was fantastic. It captured Maine so well, it made me homesick. Thank you, for making such an authentic movie!!

We sold out of the last original cover of the book before it switches over to the film cover this summer.

Thanks also to Brian and Mo at Scuppernong Books who not only hosted us for one book signing, but also came to the second screening with more books to sell and sign. Thanks to Greensboro and Winston-Salem for a wonderful week! We're all flying back home now!