Dallas Filmmakers Offer $5,000 For Stolen Movie

February 5, 2018

DALLAS–The heads of Riot Studios will give $5,000 to anyone who recovers one of the stolen hard drives containing the only copies of their film in mid-production: KYLE GOES TO PROM.

The external hard drives were stolen around 4 a.m. on the morning of Thursday, February 1, in Northwest Dallas, when a thief broke into filmmaker Will Bakke’s car.

KYLE GOES TO PROM, a feature-length documentary by Riot Studios (Beware of Christians, Believe Me), tells the story of a group of friends at Texas A&M who planned a surprise bucket-list road trip for their wheelchair-bound friend with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. KYLE GOES TO PROM delivers an inspiring message for the disabled community and will raise awareness and research funds for DMD. For months, filmmakers Will Bakke and Michael B. Allen have produced and edited the film while also raising funds to complete the project.

Watch video plea from the filmmakers and teaser trailer: vimeo.com/254387835/f670063469

The only hope to recover and complete the film rests in recovering one of the two Western Digital 2TB hard drives. The hard drives were in small black, zippable case inside a brown Filson laptop bag also containing a 15” Macbook Pro. A nearby doorbell camera captured footage of a black man in red sneakers and a red beanie as he checked other cars in the area.

A Facebook post from Will Bakke details the matter and asks for help; the post received 550 shares and led to a sighting of the suspect attempting to sell hard drives at the Walnut Hill/Denton DART station. Before anyone could investigate the sighting, the man was gone.

The filmmakers and stars will pay $5,000 to anyone who can recover the missing hard drives with the priceless footage. Anyone with leads or other help in the search can contact Will Bakke and Michael B. Alen directly via will@riotstudios.com or 214.202.0955