6 minute read
DIRT MERCHANTS Film Series
Afew years back we did a cover story on Henning Morales. At that time we dubbed him the Tony Robbins of Hollywood. Well that has come full circle as five years later Henning and his team of ‘gritty, pretty’ filmmakers has produced 11 motion pictures, including 6 feature films.
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When we found that out, we decided that this most definitely deserves another cover story. Henning Morales is the creator of the Dirt Merchants Film Series. He was a premiere motivational and inspirational speaker for well over 10 years during the 1990s and 2000s. He learned the ropes from some of the premiere speakers and sales trainers in the U.S. including Robert Depew (Jim Rohn’s mentor), Tom Hopkins and many others.
After retiring from the speaking circuit and settling down to raise a family, Henning launched an events production company in Los Angeles which he took public toward the end of the 2000s. During this time he showcased other speakers, filmmakers, music artists and authors in a barrage of red carpet events spanning an additional 10 years. There were well over 500 events including a children’s carnival event to benefit the LA Childrens hospital with 4,000 attendees, featuring Mario Lopez, a music award show at Paramount studios featuring Nick Canon and a world class personal development expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Henning took the stories that he masterfully told during his years as a speaker and wove them into a novel which was published in 2015. This bestseller has received tremendous attention from schools, mentorship groups and fans clamoring for inspirationally true stories that involve young people coming of age in America.
As a result Henning co-founded the Youth Mentorship Forum at USC and has become a sought after speaker covering topics related to teenagers and young adults.
When encouraged to produce his first movie, Henning was reluctant, to say the least. Through the encouragement of his close friends, many of which are Emmy and Oscar winning producers, directors and music people he produced a short film, Romancery, a 19-minute musicallydriven drama. And since then he has not looked back.
The characters of these movies are two friends – both high school juvenile delinquents. Spencer is based on Henning and the other we shall call Brandon.
At age 17 Spencer meets some high powered motivational masters and turns his life around. He is recruited into a world of street sales and guys motivated out of their gore to sell. It gets him away from his troublemaker friends and sets him up for life lessons he will never forget.
Brandon can’t be bothered with all that positive thinking nonsense and turns to a life of crime. He and his crew became infamous burglars, reportedly
Jeff McGrail, Anita Razzano & Henning Morales at the set of Streetchase
Left to right: ShaSha Dadier, KathleenValbuena, Henning Morales, Jeff McGrail& Gabija Guzauskaite at the set of Vino Royale
stealing upwards of $100 million in jewelry and cash.
This underlying story born out of the Dirt Merchants novel has spawned dozens of characters and 21 screenplays with the genesis being these two friends.
Henning and Drew Lane, a 22-time platinum music producer, became close friends during the events production days. Drew read Henning’s novel, The Dirt Merchants, and was one of the main professionals in the entertainment industry to encourage Henning and his team to start making films. Drew decided to come onboard to produce the music. Since then, Henning has become dedicated to making music the core differentiator between these films and many others in this genre.
As Drew told Henning “At times, these films feel like elaborate music videos with intense messages such as Smugglers Blues and Michael Jackson's Thriller music videos, but they tie into it in a much grander vision.”
Henning’s long time business partner, Barbara Lynn and close friend and attorney Jeff McGrail formed a solid backbone for a production company and they were off to the races.
Since then 11 movies have been completed and 8 are earmarked for film festivals, seeking out distribution and possible expansion into television series internationally. Starting in 2021 the Dirt Merchants Tribe, as they call themselves, have begun the submission process and have received several awards to date, including "best thriller", "best female empowerment" and "best teen" categories. These award-winning films are musically charged action/adventure thrillers based on true stories that don't involve gratuitous violence, or profanity or any form of fantasy.
MARVEL, STAR WARS, DIRT MERCHANTS?
Dirt Merchants is fast becoming a universe; its own universe like Marvel, Harry Potter or Star Wars, but unlike the others, Dirt Merchants films are based on true stories and real people; movies that feel authentic with motivational, inspirational and transformational messages and underlying story lines.
Hollywood Weekly was fortunate to host the premiere of a brand new Dirt Merchants
movie Vino Royale at its 7th annual film festival. The movie received great reviews and won the coveted best thriller motion picture award from the festival.
Vino Royale was a joint venture production with Italian filmmakers and Henning’s Los Angeles based crew. Filmed on location in Laguna Beach, Paris and Florence and Crespina in Italy, this visually stunning film is the precursor to the long awaited theatrical release feature Metal Crush, with themes of gangland justice, true love and baseball.
Plans are in motion for Dirt Merchants merchandise, graphic novels, board games and collectible NFT’s featuring the more than fifty characters in the series and back stories galore.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR DIRT MERCHANTS FILMS?
"We have 10 more movies to make in the Dirt Merchants franchise and it's gonna keep us busy for the next 6 to 8 years. In the meantime we're going to be releasing movies that are already complete one at a time and building an audience,” said Henning with a big smile. “The fulfilling part of all this is that we know that people are enjoying these movies, our tribe of inspirational and motivational masters and way seers, and all around good people, love these movies. We'll continue to share the message of hope and inspiration and build our audience with a fantastic music experience and intense, relevant story lines". Henning continued on to say, "They will come out of it not only being entertained and inspired, but knowing that the messaging that they were receiving in these movies can be shared with others in order to make the world a better place. These are movies that teenagers and young adults can watch with their parents and older people of all ages and not feel embarrassed".
One of Henning Morales' and the tribe’s goal is to demonstrate to the world that you can make one movie after the next and not use gratuitous violence, extreme imagery, or fantasy in order to build an audience and that makes for a successful movie franchise.
Deily Marrissa Garcia, Henning Morales & Paige Jorgensenat the set of HitterTwist
