cool!
this is the movie amber spoke of when she was at sidewalk!
It's filming now!
(NOTE: sweet home alabama opened the sidewalk festival, screening there just before its national release) - perhaps amber picked up an award for Chance and this gig at sidewalk.
this is another indie (so normally distribution is not guaranteed - they will have to get a distributor - but looks like they already have one! is this an art house distributor? st8 to video thing?) it has big names in and behind it - hopefully this will make it to the main stream theaters!
now I'm wondering whats the other movie folks were talking about amber making with terry owen?
editing to add several news pieces up about this movie already!
November 22, 2002
Whittier, CA
Crew member Kristen Anthony puts down fake snow for Latter Days film Monday at Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona.
By Rodney Tanaka , Staff Writer
POMONA -- On a sunny day at Lanterman Developmental Center, snow blankets the grass. Trucks filled with heavy equipment stand open and ready. Wires snake out of a window as a film crew sets up for the next shot.
Lanterman has gone Hollywood thanks to Film California First, which rebates filmmakers up to $300,000 for public labor and other costs when filming on public property.
The State Theatrical Arts Resources program, also known as STAR, also makes state-owned surplus properties available to filmmakers at no or low cost. The program, initiated by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001, tries to keep film productions in California to boost employment and bring revenue from money spent by film crews.
Funny Boy Films, based in Santa Monica, completed a six-day shoot of the film "Latter Days' Tuesday at Lanterman's Pomona campus. About 50 people worked on the set.
"Latter Days' is a romantic drama about a Lothario who bets his friends that he can seduce a Mormon missionary named Davis, who moves into his apartment complex, but winds up falling in love instead,' said George Bendele, vice president of development for Funny Boy Films.
Lanterman provided beautiful facilities in a secure, closed-off area, said Jennifer Schaefer, co- producer and line producer for "Latter Days' and vice president of production for Funny Boy Films.
Using Lanterman saved money with rebates and in terms of convenience, Schaefer said. They shot scenes of Davis, the Mormon missionary, confronting his mother in his childhood home in Idaho at Lanterman's Pacific House, which already came furnished.
The same shoot at an actual home would have taken two or three days instead of one, Schaefer said, and they didn't have to close down streets.
"It's a controlled environment here,' she said.
Funny Boy has partnered with TLA Releasing, a top distributor of gay and lesbian content, to release 10 pictures together, Bendele said. "Latter Days,' expected to be released in 2003, is the first film in that partnership.
The production now moves to Norwalk, another Film California First site. But other states such as Illinois and New Mexico offer more incentives to help low-budget productions, Schaefer said.
"California can go a little further to help filmmakers,' she said.
Davis' program does work wonders for bigger studios, she said, and she has noticed film production has picked up in California.
From January to October there have been 321 days of production on STAR property, said Karen Constine, director of the California Film Commission, which administers the STAR program.
"Many of these properties are blank canvases,' Constine said. "They can be dressed or made to look different. They can be used for longer periods of time.'
The governor wants to support the California film industry, and as a state agency Lanterman wants to help, Lanterman spokeswoman Irene Kim said.
Filming has primarily been away from Lanterman residents and staff, she said.
One side benefit is the film crew has asked questions about Lanterman residents, learning more about their care and the reasons for them being here, Kim said. Lanterman serves 648 developmentally disabled clients.
"Whenever we have a person who understands our clients and their right for respect and dignity, they will not forget this,' Kim said. "I truly believe when (the subject of disabilities) comes up they will become an advocate to dispel some of the misconceptions out there because they have seen it with their own eyes.'
Edited by: helpful information perhaps at: 11/22/02 5:45:08 am
and 
Spice 
and his production company, Funny Boy Films, made a deal with TLA Releasing to produce and distribute 10 gay and lesbian-themed films over the next four years. The first film out of the gate will be "Latter Days," currently in production in L.A. Directed by "Sweet Home Alabama" screenwriter C. Jay Cox, "Latter Days" is the story of a young Mormon guy who falls for a circuit-club boy -- I guess opposites do attract. Look for the film in the latter part of 2003.
