After many years of sitting and percolating, Dr. William Forstchen’s amazing book is finally coming to theaters. First published in April, 2011, “One Second After” is the book that started me on my prepping journey and was a major catalyst for launching Retreat Realty. It quickly became a NYT best seller and he went on to write two follow up sequels (“One Year After” and “The Final Day”). The follow on books are also very good, but “One Second After” stands alone as the best in my opinion.
When I moved to Black Mountain in 2014, I was introduced to Bill Forstchen by a mutual friend who is actually a character in the book. This led to several interesting years of speaking at various prepper and survivalist conferences as Retreat Realty grew into the premier prepper/homesteader/survival real estate firm in western North Carolina. We have been fortunate to assist countless individuals in the purchase and sale of their own bugout properties. During these years, Bill had numerous opportunities to sell the movie rights, but refused because he was concerned a director and producer would butcher the story.
Early indications are that he’s pleased with the initial shooting which occurred in, of all places, Bulgaria! Yes, the set designers recreated our small western NC town of Black Mountain in the mountains of Bulgaria. I’ve only seen a couple of peripheral images, but am eager to see it coming to the big screen. On site filming wrapped up in late 2025 and is now in post-production with a release date sometime next year. Click here to read an in-depth interview with the lead actor, Josh Holloway, who played a major role in the series “Lost” as well as leading roles in “Colony” and “Duster”.
In the meantime, don’t wait for the rush of publicity and paranoia (aka Y2K) to take over. Call us now to start your search for the ideal homestead or survival property. Things may never get as bad as portrayed in the book (I pray they don’t), but it doesn’t hurt to have a place prepared for the unexpected such as we experienced in this area as Hurricane Helene devastated our region.