Veteran director and producer Robert Rippberger has relaunched Ascent Studios in North Carolina as White Lightning Studios, with new investment partners.
Rippberger’s new investors for the rebrand include former National Football League star Jason Brown, who currently runs the food relief non-profit First Fruit Farms and has land contiguous with the film complex. Ascent Studios, which broke ground in 2023 and has now opened, has six soundstages spread over 170,000 square feet and in all around 200 acres of land.
Rippberger’s rebranded venture also has backing and investment from North Carolina-originated producer and actress Kelly Lynn Reiter (Deadlock, Laws of Man, The Cut), and Roger Goff as general counsel.
White Lightning Studios has already lined up its first feature, A Good Fight, a heartfelt comedy written by Pierce Gardner and to be directed by Rippberger. The project is produced by Justin Shaner and Fernando H. Rojas of Miami’s Sobe Brooke Studios and follows a successful small-town businessman whose interview with an intrusive college newspaper reporter spins out of control, and turns both their lives around.
Rippberger directed the Frankie Muniz-led sci-fi/thriller Renner in North Carolina in 2023. The film is set for an early-2025 release.
In a statement, Rippberger cited filmmakers taking advantage of North Carolina’s 25 percent tax rebate to lure film and TV projects to his stages in the triangle regions of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.
“Nowhere else will you be able to get as much production value with as good of a state tax incentive. This is a studio team of professionals whose expertise is bringing TV, film, commercials, and music videos to life, and with a bit of Southern charm,” he said.
Rippberger recently directed the Frankie Muniz led sci-fi/thriller Renner in North Carolina, which is set to release early 2025. His credits include the Booboo Stewart led horror/thriller Those Who Walk Away, the drama Strive, starring Danny Glover, and producing the documentary How To Build a Truth Engine, executive produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, which had a world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.
Rippberger is repped by Established Artists and Millennial PR.
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