Mr. Manhattan (2024)

Mr. Manhattan Review

Great American Pure Flix will stream the film Mr. Manhattan on May 24, which is a project that was filmed around the Asbury University campus, central Kentucky and New York City. In 2023 Great American Pure Flix became part of Great American Media through a merger with Sony Pictures Television, making it the premier source for uplifting family-friendly movies and programs.

Many people from Asbury were involved in working behind the scenes of Mr. Manhattan alumni, students, faculty and staff. The film was produced by Brady Nasfell ’93 and directed by Brian Herzlinger, with an original screenplay written by Andrea Gyertson ’95 Nasfell, which features actors Carlos PenaVega and Alexa PenaVega of Spy Kids.

The professional feature film set up shop at Asbury last summer to shoot in several locations on and around campus using the Andrew S. Miller Center for Communication Arts as a hub for production. The on-Asbury set consisted of a fully furnished apartment built in the TV studio soundstage, with other classrooms and spaces used as dressing rooms for actors and production offices for crew members.

“The building creates a lot of opportunities for students, and now we’ve been able to bring a fairly sizable feature film and make use of the facilities,” said Brady Nasfell. “It’s more than adequate for what we need, and it’s given students an opportunity to work on a production that is professional, and they’re learning a lot.”

Mr. Manhattan tells the story of successful lawyer Mason Bradley (Carlos PenaVega), who believes there’s nothing he can’t handle. That is until he gets the news that his brother and sister-in-law died and made Mason their children’s legal guardian. Having no experience in parent ing whatsoever, he steps into his new role with can-do bravado but between juggling a demanding new client as well as moving his niece and nephew into his not-exactly-child-friendly Manhattan loft, it’s not long before Mason realizes he needs help. The kids want that help to come from their mom’s best friend and hometown babysitter, Dani (Alexa PenaVega), who also happens to be Mason’s ex-fiancé.

“I was working as key grip and had a group of students working on my team,” said Assistant Professor of Media Communication David Whitaker ’10. “It was a privilege to give students an opportunity to work on Mr. Manhattan seeing them progress and improve at such a rapid pace during filming was a joy, and I’m hopeful that we will be able to provide students with more of these opportunities in the future.”

“The hands-on experience that Mr. Manhattan provided for students was not only eye-opening, but also a ‘jump into the deep end’ type of exponential growth,” Wang said. “The communication style, workflow and productivity of everyone involved offered me a glimpse into the demanding but highly fulfilling environment of a feature film.”

The Asbury University Media Journalism & Digital Storytelling department offers majors in Media Communication and Multimedia Journalism. Online majors include Digital Content Creation and Instructional Design & Media. Graduate programs include the M.A. in Digital Storytelling; the M.A. in Instructional Design, Innovation & Leadership; the MFA in Film & Television Production, and the MFA in Screenwriting

Watch Mr. Manhattan For Free On Gomovies.