A Letter From Death Row is a 1998

1998 in film

-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...

 psychological thriller

Psychological thriller

Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...

 film directed by Marvin Baker and Bret Michaels

Bret Michaels

Bret Michaels is an American musician, actor, director, screenwriter, producer and reality television personality. He first gained fame as the lead vocalist of the glam metal band Poison. Besides his career as lead singer, he has several solo albums to his credit, as well as one chart single...

, lead singer of the hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band Poison

Poison (band)

Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. To date, Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100,...

. Bret Michaels also wrote the film and starred in it. The film was released by Sheen Michaels Entertainment, a company created by Bret Michaels and actor Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

. The film was produced by Shane Stanley

Shane Stanley

Shane Stanley is a multi-Emmy Award winning filmmaker best known for Executive Producing Gridiron Gang starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for Sony Pictures and directing Bret Michaels music videos supporting the smash hit show Rock of Love and Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It...

 and also stars Martin Sheen

Martin Sheen

Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

, Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

, and Kristi Gibson.

Bret Michaels and Kristi Gibson dated for many years after meeting on the set of the movie and have two daughters together, Raine and Jorja.

There was a sequel released in 2002 titled "Dark Asylum" in the US and "Return to Death Row" outside the US and starred Judd Nelson

Judd Nelson

Judd Asher Nelson is an American actor. He is best known for being a member of the "Brat Pack" in the mid-1980s; and for his roles as John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbary in St...

, Larry Drake

Larry Drake

Larry Drake is an American actor.Drake was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Lorraine, a homemaker, and Raymond Drake, a drafting engineer for an oil company. Drake is renowned for his portrayal of developmentally disabled Benny Stulwicz on the television show L.A...

, Paulina Porizkova

Paulina Porizkova

Pavlína Pořízková-Ocasek is a Czech model and actress. At the age of eighteen years, she became the first woman from Central Europe to grace the cover of the Sports Illustrated swim-suit issue. She was the second woman to be featured on the swim-suit issue's front cover consecutive times...

 and Jürgen Prochnow

Jürgen Prochnow

Jürgen Prochnow is a German actor. His most well-known roles internationally have been as the sympathetic submarine captain in Das Boot , Duke Leto Atreides I in Dune , the minor, but important role of Neo-Stalinist dictator General Ivan Radek in Air Force One and the villain Maxwell Dent in...

. Bret Michaels was not associated with the sequel despite appearing on the cover of the international version.

Plot summary

A psychological thriller that takes you through the mind of convicted killer, Michael Raine, and his experiences on death row. Was he guilty of killing his girlfriend or was he a victim of a conspiracy to frame him for a crime he didn't commit? As the story unfolds Jessica Foster, an assistant to the Governor of Tennessee begins to interview Raine while on death row, claiming that she's writing a book about the inmates. Through various circumstances, Raine puts two and two together and builds a case that he believes can prove his innocence...or does he? Ms. Foster is the only one on the 'outside" who can give Raine a voice, but is she working for those who framed him? As time draws near to the date of his execution, in his most desperate hour Raine finds the missing pieces to the puzzle to prove his innocence, but is it too late...? Was this story told from Raine's point of view or from the book writers or from yours, the viewer - you decide.

Soundtrack

Bret Michaels also recorded and released the soundtrack

A Letter from Death Row (album)

A Letter from Death Row is the debut solo album by Bret Michaels, the lead singer of the rock band Poison. The album is a soundtrack to the movie A Letter from Death Row which Bret Michaels wrote, directed and starred in..-Content:...

 to the movie in the same year. Max T. Barnes

Max T. Barnes

Max T. Barnes is a country music singer, songwriter, studio musician, and producer. He is the son of songwriter Max D. Barnes. He has written songs on albums that have sold over 20 million records. He currently writes for Ray Stevens Music publishing and lives in Hendersonville,...

worked as an engineer on the project.

Documentary

A documentary was released in 2000 titled "High Tension, Low Budget (The Making of a Letter from Death Row)" and is included as a special extra bonus on DVD versions released outside the U.S. The extra includes the making of the movie, featuring in depth interviews with cast and crew and various other clips of Bret Michaels in the 1990s leading up to the movie's release.