The University of Idaho is getting some much needed publicity in the new miniseries, “Good Luck,” out of Jackson, Tennessee.
The series follows young gunrunner Elizabeth Ellrik in her early 20s. Ellrik works as an arms dealer to pay a debt to an old boss.
There is one last sale before she can start over far from East Tennessee. She is accepted to the University of Idaho and plans to get out of the business as soon as possible.
Writer and director Will Black said UI was his first choice for location.
Will Black | Courtesy
From left to right, actors Lantonio Jackson and Hannah Wright promote their miniseries in a short clip separate from the series.
“I love the state of Idaho, I’ve been there before,” Black said. “It’s gorgeous.”
Black said he was looking into schools in Idaho because the state was far from Tennessee.
Black said he had a tough time choosing between schools to send his lead character. He said there were schools in Washington State and Utah he was looking into, however Black said no other school agreed to be affiliated nor were they as gracious as UI.
“When I emailed the admissions office at UI they were just so cool about it,” said Black. “They sent me a fake admissions letter on an official letterhead and everything.”
Along with Idaho’s hospitality, Black said Tennessee has been very welcoming to the miniseries. The cast and crew pull mainly from Tennessee talent, and all but one of “Good Luck’s” cast members are from Tennessee.
People from East Tennessee have donated props, locations and even pieces of land for filming.
Black said donations helped because the entire production has been funded by the cast and crew. He said it’s not just him, and he’s thankful for the help.
“I was really proud to see all of us pull together and fund this thing ourselves,” Black said.
The only setbacks faced were scheduling issues. He said when dealing with 17 different schedules, time conflicts happen. When it does, they have to film another day, Black said.
The series is making waves at national and international film festivals. The series’ trailer was entered into contests and was accepted into programming for both the Barcelona International Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain, and the Los Angeles CineFest.
Black said he never trained professionally at a film school.
With three years behind a camera, he said he created several self-produced films that received showings at film festivals in the U.S.
The project began in March 2016 and has been in production for the last few months with two episodes available for viewing on VHX.
The storyline tracks two strong female leads. Writer and director Black said the show is more than just a gritty, violent series about drug dealers.
“There is an overarching theme and a life lesson here,” Black said. “It deals with people always thinking the grass is greener somewhere on the other side and how they can’t be content.”
He said he feels the series’ theme has been lost in today’s society.
Black said he hopes the series opens audience’s eyes to what they’ve missed out on and allows them to be thankful for their personal situations.
“I’ve kind of become a Vandals fan out of all of this,” said Black “You know, I might start following you guys this football season.”
Destiny Alvarez
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