CHICAGO — Somewhere between moving to Lincoln Park and finishing his first semester at DePaul University, Luke Jaden found time to direct his fourth film, "King Ripple."
"It's hard to balance," the 18-year-old Michigan native admitted. "It's an extreme challenge. There's been some major obstacles I've had to overcome, but I'm very grateful for everything and how things have been going."
The film, which was shot in Detroit, follows four teenagers who venture into a mysterious city they've been warned not to enter. The teens trek through the desolate wasteland in search to confront the being that created it — King Ripple, Jaden said.
The horror thriller stars Keith Stanfield, who played Jimmie Lee Jackson in "Selma," and Torrey Wigfield, who played Face in the Ryan Gosling-directed thriller "Lost River." It was filmed in December by Troika, a production company founded by Jaden along with other artists he's collaborated with.
"Troika was founded with the goal of creating sophisticated, high-quality films. Venturing into risk-taking journeys and collaborating with gifted storytellers on high-conceptual indies packed with big production value on relatively low budgets," according to their website.
Jaden became obsessed with movies at a young age and began acting when he was 12. But the English major discovered quickly that his passion was for other aspects of film and directed his first film, "Madman or Martyr," when he was 16.
"I still do a little acting but the writing blossomed into something larger than I ever expected," said Jaden, who also produces movies.
Between the two films, he also directed "The Neverlands" and "Not Well."
But in "King Ripple" he gets back in front of the camera with a supporting role.
"As a director, you have to be behind the camera, paying attention to every little detail from a bird's eye view. But I just could not do that on this project. I had to get into character, look at and really study the script, and rehearse lines. On this one I decided to take a step back," said Jaden, who plays Walla, a character he describes as a loner who finds himself friends with the cool kids.
"He was a really odd character, hard to get into but was fun to get into," Jaden said. "It was an awesome role to play and I loved it."
Jaden fell in love with Chicago after visiting with his family as a kid and now hopes to film an upcoming project in the city, he said.
"It's a cool city. I love it. It's close to home but far enough from Detroit so it really had an appeal to me especially with it's great artistic community. I'm definitely filming a project here that's for sure," Jaden said.
"I've got a few projects I'm circling around now that I want to do in Chicago. I just don't know when. It's just a matter of what speaks to me the most."
"King Ripple" is currently in post production and should be completed by the summer.
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