Our Current Project

Set during Yom Kippur, TICKLING LEO is a mystery/drama that follows three generations of a family whose secrets threaten to wipe away its future. When Zak Pikler and his pregnant girlfriend Delphina travel to an abandoned Catskill lake they find his estranged father, Warren, living in solitude and declining health. As Zak copes with his father's dementia, Delphina begins to uncover a secret the Piklers have been hiding since World War II: the family’s complicity in Rudolph Kastner’s (a Hungarian Zionist leader) controversial deal with the Nazis to allow certain Jews safe passage out of Hungary.


marystuart@barndoorpictures.com peter@barndoorpictures.com steve@barndoorpictures.com 		MISSION STATEMENT

An independent film production company co-founded by Mary Stuart Masterson, her brother Peter C.B. Masterson, and Steve Weisman. Barn Door Pictures’ mission is to produce films with a heart and brain for a reasonable budget as the material allows. Barn Door Pictures consists of industry insiders and artists who are uniquely qualified to develop material in-house, present realistic budgets for prospective projects, and provide top-notch cast and crew to do the job. Barn Door Pictures owns and/or controls many properties of genres including comedy, family drama, romantic comedy, science fiction, mystery-fable, sex farce, sports stories, classic fiction adaptations, and TV pilots. Barn Door Pictures is dedicated to making quality entertainment for any and all media on a lean, mean scale. We want to make “everyday” stories about quirky and thought-provoking subjects—the kind of movies that aren’t being made on the studio level anymore. Think of us as a boutique serving a choosy clientele.
  

MARY STUART MASTERSON (Partner),
made her film debut at the age of seven in The Stepford Wives which starred her father Peter Masterson. During high school, Mary Stuart made her Broadway debut understudying Kate Burton in Alice in Wonderland and starred in her first feature film Heaven Help Us. She went on to act in many films including, At Close Range, Some Kind of Wonderful, Gardens of Stone, Chances Are, Immediate Family (National Board of Review Award) Fried Green Tomatoes, Benny and Joon, Bed of Roses, Digging to China, Dogtown, The Book of Stars, West of Here. In 2004 she played Olga in the film The Sisters, (based on Chekov’s The Three Sisters). In 2005 she played G.G. in Whiskey School directed by her father, co-starring her mother, Carlin Glynn, and shot by her brother, Peter C.B. Masterson.

Mary Stuart played the title role in Horton Foote’s Lily Dale, at the Samuel Beckett Theater in 1987 (10 years later she would re-create the role in the Showtime film of the same name for which she received a Lone Star award). In 1988, she played a pregnant teenager in Beth Henley’s The Lucky Spot, at The Manhattan Theater Club. In 1991-2, Mary Stuart played Irina in Emily Mann’s production of Lanford Wilson’s translation of The Three Sisters at the McCarter Theater. Frances McDormand and Linda Hunt were her sisters. In 2003, Mary Stuart starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the musical Nine on Broadway for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award and received a Theater World Award. In 2004, she played Maggie in, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, at the Kennedy Center. In 2005, she made her London debut in the three-character play National Anthems at the Old Vic opposite Kevin Spacey and Steven Webber.

Among her television credits, Mary Stuart starred in and produced Kate Brasher with Jersey Television for CBS and wrote and directed “The Other Side” for Showtime’s “Directed By” series. She also starred in several TV films including, Black and Blue (CBS), On the Second Day of Christmas (Lifetime), Love Lives On (ABC), Lily Dale (Showtime) and Something the Lord Made (HBO). Mary Stuart plays the recurring role of Dr. Rebecca Hendrix in Law and Order: SVU.

Mary Stuart directed and co-produced the feature film, The Cake Eaters, which premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival. Still on the festival circuit, The Cake Eaters was recently awarded audience prizes at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and Hell’s Half Mile Film Festival, the Best Narrative Feature Award at Portland Women’s Film Festival, and the Harkins Discovery Prize at the Sedona Film Festival.

Barn Door’s first production,Tickling Leo, was written and directed by her husband, Jeremy Davidson.   

PETER C.B. MASTERSON (Partner),
started in the film industry in the camera department and worked his way up from trainee to camera assistant to camera operator. He also directed and shot the feature film, West of Here, which won the Cinevegas Film Festival’s prestigious audience award. In addition to The Cake Eaters and West of Here, Peter C.B. also shot the yet-to-be-released feature, Whiskey School. He has worked in 35-MM, 16MM as well as HD and Super 8 formats. He has developed the screenplay for and will direct The 26th Man in the spring of 2008.   

STEVEN WEISMAN (Partner)
is a New York-based producer who began his career as a Production Executive for Francis Coppola's American Zoetrope. During his tenure, Zoetrope produced numerous feature and television projects including BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA, Angieszka Holland's THE SECRET GARDEN, Gregory Nava's MY FAMILY/MI FAMILIA, DON JUAN DEMARCO, JOHN GRISHAM'S THE RAINMAKER, the undertaking of ZOETROPE ALL-STORY magazine, and an award-winning series of long-format music videos MUSIC CINEMA for VH1. He produced the independent feature THE FLORENTINE with Jeremy Davies, Jill Hennessey, Michael Madsen, Virginia Madsen, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Penn, Luke Perry, Tom Sizemore and Jim Belushi.