TAMPA, Fla. — A filmmaker couple who were conned out of $20,000 by a hacker have been shooting a revenge movie inspired by the true crime around the Tampa Bay area in December, which also happens to be where lead actor Shane Brady grew up.

What You Need To Know

  • The revenge movie is titled “HACKED: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma”

  • The first 10 minutes of the film are based on true events

  • The movie features iconic locations across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties

  • HACKED is expected to be released on Halloween 2024

“We wanted to really have this film bleed Tampa Bay,” he said. “I love coming home. I grew up in Palm Harbor.”

Brady, 36 and his fiancé, Emily Zercher, 32, are co-producing the film, “HACKED: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma.” It’s based on their 2021 home buying experience in Austin, Texas, when the $20,000 down payment was stolen via wire fraud.

“The scammer was a gentleman who falsified an email that looked exactly like our title company’s email,” said Brady. “It put us in damn near an impossible bind.”   

Zercher said while on an extended hold with the FBI fraud department, she made some dark comments on the line, hoping to get attention.

“(I spoke into the phone) ‘I’m just going to go to the hacker’s house because we had his address and I’m just going to hack him to bits. I’m going to bring a machete.’ And I’m like, ‘Did you hear that? Answer the phone,’” she said. “Then we decided later on, when we cooled down, we’re going to make this a film.”

The first 10 minutes of the film are based on true events, the rest is what the couple wishes they could’ve done to the thief.

The movie features iconic locations across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, which include the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. in Ybor City, the Jose Gasparilla II pirate ship in downtown Tampa, Pier 60 in Clearwater and Honeymoon Island in Dunedin. The producers have received a $25,000 incentive from Film Tampa Bay and have applied for an incentive from the Visit St. Pete/Clearwater Film Commission.

“There’s a very small target that we’re trying to hit with this film. That I believe we can hit,” said Brady. “Which, is it possible to have a playful, absurdest, horror, comedy, that also has heart? I think we can do it.”

Tampa Bay radio announced Phil Esposito is featured in the film along with Chandler Riggs, 24, who played Carl Grimes on “The Walking Dead” for eight seasons.

Drew Newman, the 4th generation owner of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co., makes a cameo in a scene shot in his historic cigar rolling room. In the scene, characters based on Brady and Zercher are sitting at cigar rolling tables when the hacker, who pretends to be a factory worker, asks for a signature and social security number. A short time later, Newman’s character asks for the same information and the couple realizes they’ve been scammed.

This is the second movie the couple has made together. The first, “Breathing Happy,” was also shot in Tampa in 2021. Brady said he hopes to release “HACKED: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma” next Halloween.

“You’re going to have to watch the film to see if we got the money back, if we got the house and if the guy got arrested,” he said. “I can tell you there are finite answers for all three of those.”