Agent Toby Barks , a children ’ s film not made under the Verdi Productions banner . They later teamed up again for another canine-centric family movie , Junkyard Dogs , which was produced by Hyperborea , their own newly formed imprint , and Paul ’ s company , LaSalle Productions .
Their next gig took them out to New Mexico for Wander , a thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones , Aaron Eckhart and Heather Graham . By the standards of their still-fledgling careers , this was a major leveling up for two young producers . They came home fired up for more .
“ Being able to come back to Rhode Island with that experience helped us be really motivated for what we had up next ,” Verdi says .
Unfortunately , “ what ’ s next ” turned out to be a pandemicinduced shutdown of the film industry . Not wanting to lose the momentum they had spent the past few years building , Verdi and Luba sought a way to keep themselves and some of their closest collaborators working . Then came the ( pardon the pun ) opportunity of a Lifetime .
A sales agent who had worked with Verdi Productions in the past had recently taken a new position with a company that was looking for a production partner to create Lifetime movies . Luba and Verdi pitched a bunch of ideas , and two generated interest . Those pitches became Sins of the Preacher ’ s Wife ( not to be confused with Secret Life of the Pastor ’ s Wife , which is somehow an entirely separate movie from a different production company ) and My Acting Coach Nightmare , the first two movies that Verdi and Luba successfully produced and sold to the cable network . They aired in 2023 and 2024 , respectively .
The model proved to be a good fit for pandemic-era production restrictions .
“ It needs to be only a few characters and locations because these TV films are so small and the money is so tight ,” Luba explains .
They understood the potential immediately . “ After we saw those were successful , we were like , ‘ We want to do more of this ,’” Verdi says . “ This provides us — and Rhode Island — with consistent filmmaking opportunities .”
The formula is fairly simple , as they explain in their backand-forth , friends-who-complete-each-other ’ s-sentences kind of rhythm : Chad : “ Female-driven thrillers . Women-in-peril or whodunnit kind of mystery movies .” Paul : “ Age range of the main character anywhere in their twenties , thirties or forties .” Chad : “ Something very dramatic , soap opera-esque happens to her , whether it ’ s someone starts stalking her , a relative dies , her husband cheats on her . Something dramatic happens to spur more mystery and more drama .” Paul : “ She has to be the central character . We can ’ t focus on the husband or the stalker . The target audience is female so that ’ s who they ’ re going to be able to connect with .” Chad : “ It has to be dark , but at the same time lighthearted , in the sense that we don ’ t want to dive too deeply into dark situations .”
Paul : “ It needs to be able to air on TV during the day .” Chad : “ If somebody gets stabbed , you ’ re not going to see blood gushing everywhere .” Paul : “ We have a pretty good idea now of the box we need to stay in , but we also view it as a challenge .” Chad : “ How creative can you get within this defined box ?” Paul : “ In this box we ’ re going to do the best job possible . We ’ re going to make this unique and not like anything else on the channel .” They have no illusions about the work : They recognize that they ’ re not exactly making Oppenheimer , but they still want to stand out .
“ In the film world it ’ s not the most respected thing to make TV movies ,” Verdi says . “ However , we ’ re trying to make the best frickin ’ TV movie , period , so that everyone else can ’ t compete with us . We try to make them look a lot better than what you ’ re normally getting with TV movies .”
While My Acting Coach Nightmare might not have the production value of an HBO movie , it looks better than a lot of its competitors , particularly the kind of straight-to-streaming movies where two actors in the same scene sometimes feel like they were never actually in the same room , or Winnipeg might stand in for Venice . This is one of the ways in which Rhode Island puts them at a competitive advantage . Because these productions are home games for Luba and Verdi , they ’ re able to use their surroundings and tap into the state ’ s onedegree-of-separation network .
“ Rhode Island is such a small state . Everyone knows everyone ,” Luba says . “ Because of that we ’ re able to call in a lot of favors .”
Where other production companies might need to make a set look like a college campus , Verdi and Luba can simply make a few phone calls and be shooting at Rhode Island College , as they did with A Friend ’ s Obsession , a recently completed movie that has not yet aired as of this writing . The main character is a college basketball player , and they were even able to use the RIC women ’ s basketball team ’ s uniforms . It gives their movies a sense of place — not only are the actors actually in the same room , but it ’ s a real locker room in a real college . Their hometown pride comes through in every establishing shot that lingers lovingly on a real Rhode Island landmark .
The Lifetime model has become an integral part of Verdi and Luba ’ s business . It ’ s not just an opportunity to make and sell films — it ’ s also a way to develop talent and , perhaps more importantly , keep aspiring filmmakers in Rhode Island working .
They credit the Rhode Island Film & Television Office , under the leadership of Steven Feinberg , for bringing big Hollywood productions like last year ’ s star-studded James L . Brooks dramedy Ella McCay to Rhode Island with surprising regularity . But those aren ’ t enough to make filmmaking a viable career option in the Ocean State .
“ A lot of times they bring in out-of-state people , they ’ re here for like six months and then they don ’ t come back until they need to film again ,” Verdi says . He and Luba aim to fill those considerable gaps in the schedule with a steady stream of small
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