UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A film produced by two Penn State faculty members was recently added to Amazon Prime, a membership-based streaming service that provides additional benefits.
Produced by the husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Rod Bingaman and Maura Shea, the feature-length comedy “Ripped!” focuses on a group of 1960s British pop rockers who mistakenly get launched into space. Norman’s Normans, a mop-topped quartet that work at the British Space Agency, get blasted into space when a trained chimp accidentally punches in a launch code and they land on a planet populated entirely by women.
On the faraway planet they meet women wary of anything male, although the queen’s daughter falls in love with the band’s music and its lead singer, Norman. At the same time, officials back on Earth are working to help the band return home. View the trailer here.
Professional actors filled lead roles in the film, but dozens of Penn State alumni, students and community members played vital roles in making the production possible. For more information about the movie, visit rippedthemovie.com.
Bingaman, a senior lecturer, has more than 20 years of industry experience, including work on feature films, broadcast television, commercials and corporate communications as a writer, director, cameraman and editor.
Shea, associate head of the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies and also a senior lecturer, boasts experience as a producer, sound designer and editor on projects ranging from independent feature films, such as "Ripped!" and "Chasing Butterflies," to award-winning documentaries.