The telling
1897
An orphanage in Virginia City
Sunday evening. Sister Maria gathers the orphans in her care, and the groundskeeper takes his place at the old piano.
“Today I will tell you the story of a boy, a priest and a demon.”
Sr. Maria
Western · Musical · Supernatural
His Name
is Michael
The only priest in Nevada battles demons and outlaws for the soul of a boy with no name.
Coming Late 2026
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A supernatural Western musical set in Virginia City, Nevada, and filmed entirely in South Dakota. Cinematography by Aaron Berger.
A story inside a story
The story she tells
1867
Virginia City, Nevada
Thirty years earlier, in the boom town silver had made the most important city between Denver and San Francisco — and in the whole state of Nevada, one priest.
Wyatt Earp with a collar
Loosely based on Father Patrick Manogue — the only priest in the state of Nevada, who earned a reputation as “Wyatt Earp with a collar.” Feared by disreputable men, loved by everyone he helped.
The story began life on stage, and was so well received it had to be turned into a movie. It is part of a trilogy, each story set one hundred years apart.
The film seeks to answer a question:
What is your name?
Key credits
- Written by
- Jeromy Darling
- Directed by
- Joseph Bezenek
- Produced by
- Keely Kemp
- Father Manogue
- Jeromy Darling
- The Boy
- Wyatt Darling
- The King of Virginia City
- Joseph Bezenek
- Director of Photography
- Aaron Berger
- Edited by
- Aaron Berger
- Sound Mixer
- Zak Rivers
- Original Music by
- Jeromy Darling & Kurt Larson
- Original Score by
- Justuce Johnson
- Behind-the-Scenes Photography
- Ryan McBoyle
Filmed entirely in South Dakota
The production
Set in Virginia City, Nevada, built and shot entirely in South Dakota. Five sequences that set the shape of the picture.
-
01
The opening
The production opened on the most demanding sequence in the script — the hardest passage in the film technically and emotionally, and the first thing an audience sees. It was shot first, and shot until it was right.
-
02
Light and blood
A single frame carries the whole picture: beauty and violence in the same light. It is the image the production returned to whenever a decision needed settling.
-
03
The schoolroom
Twenty child actors in a period-accurate schoolroom, reciting verse. The production built the sequence around them, and it became the warmest passage in a film that spends much of its time in the dark.
-
04
The barn
From that classroom the picture turns: a presence in a barn that should not be there. The tonal distance between those two sequences is the film in miniature — and the reason it needed a musical to hold it together.
-
05
The river
Clear skies, sixty degrees, and a horse named “Hollywood.” The last frames of principal photography, and the widest the film ever breathes.
From the set
Selected stills
Behind-the-scenes photography by Ryan McBoyle.
Stay close
Know when it opens.
His Name is Michael arrives late 2026. One email when there is a date, a trailer, or a screening near you.
Coming Late 2026
Follow the film as it comes.
@hnimfilm