MOVIES: Special screenings — “Running 4 President” celebrates local premiere

  Running for president is so last year. "Running 4 President" is anything but.

  That's because the new comedy, from local filmmaker Marko Sakren, premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the Rave Town Square 18.

  " 'R4P' has been a long time coming," Sakren notes. "I'm exhaused but excited," he adds, thanking "more than 250 people involved in the making of this film" since he began casting in 2007.

  The political comedy focuses on a pair of 20-something slackers, desperate to save their failing oxygen bar, who devise a series of lame-brained marketing schemes — one of which inadvertently triggers a grassroots political movement.

  "Not the same film that I imagined when I wrote it in 2004," Sakren admits, and he didn't get the $2.5 million budget he invested, so "had to settle on shoestrings again," but "we lucked out on talent," he adds, citing leads Griffin Stanton-Meisen and Johnny Carson along with the supporting cast.

  A red carpet at the Rave multiplex will precede the premiere and a party at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Town Square will follow the screening.

  Tickets, which are $10, are available in the Rave Town Square lobby starting at 6 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

  The movie also will be available on DVD; more information is available at www.r4pmovie.com.