CSI in the News - CSI Today

Staten Island film festival picks: 'Code Name: Operation Black
Thunder'
By Kaitlin Cangro
June 02, 2010, 5:22PM
Courtesy of Edgar Jimz
Lieutenant William Mark (Bill Geary, left) realizes Sergeant Frank Martinez (Edgar Jimz)
knows too much inside information in "Code Name: Operation Black Thunder," a
selection in the SINY Film Festival.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Generations of movie-goers have looked to “Superman” and “Batman” to save the
day. Just when an entire town is about to give up hope, a man in a cape comes flying in.
Cinematic rogue cops have pulled the same duty. Think Inspector Harry Callahan in “Dirty Harry” or Axel
Foley in “Beverly Hills Cop.”
Now, comes a police officer-turned-superhero: Sergeant Frank Martinez. Indie film fans can meet him in
“Code Name: Operation Black Thunder,” playing at the SINY Film Festival, June 2-6.
The story, by writer/director Edgar Jimz of Mariners Harbor, involves four FBI agents whose mission,
Operation Black Thunder, is to stop a terrorist group from deploying a biological weapon in New York City.
These terrorists have insiders in U.S. intelligence agencies. Seven other NYPD police officers, who are on
suspension for charges of murder and robbery, are assigned to the mission because of their prior military
experience.
Martinez gets his hands on an Egyptian figure the same day that he is assigned to this mission. The figure is
said to come from outerspace. When the figure breaks, Martinez finds a mask. Upon putting on this mask,
his brain power is enhanced and he becomes Black Thunder, a violent man who eventually defeats this
terrorist group.
Jimz, a Corrections Department captain assigned to the Emergency Services Unit of the Manhattan Detention
Complex, chatted with AWE about his film and how he incorporated his work as a corrections officer.
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