|
An
an impressive display of pride, enthusiasm and unity, many Madison
residents, city officials and merchants banded together to pull
off a Madison miracle of their own: a Hollywood-style, red carpet
“Madison” movie premiere on Sunday, April 17, that even
amazed MGM employees.
MGM’s marketing and promotion staffers were in town for the
weekend to oversee the activities of bringing in six principle actors
for media interviews, movie screening and gala party under a two-city-block-long
tent on Main Street. But it was local people who planned, decorated,
catered and pulled off the show.
In all, 868 tickets were available
for sale at $40 each, with about 800 people enjoying the food and
fellowship with many of the stars following the showing of the 90-minute
film in both the Ohio Theatre on Main Street and on the hilltop
at Great Escape’s Madison 6 cinema. Just east of the tent on
the next city block, Madison singer-songwriter Rusty Bladen performed
for the crowd that did not buy tickets but still wanted to take
in all the excitement. Bladen’s own song, “Ride That River,”
was heard briefly across a car radio in one scene of the movie.
 |
|
May
2005
Madison Edition Cover
|
“It was terrific; I can’t
say enough about how hard our people worked to make this happen,”
said Linda Lytle, executive director of the Madison Area Convention
and Visitors Bureau.
“The MGM people could not stop talking about Madison, the city.
They really loved it here. And the movie people who came in from
Indianapolis could not believe how big this thing was until they
got here,” said Betsey Vonderheide, special projects administrator
for the City of Madison.
Vonderheide and Lytle were the principle
planners of the premiere festivities, while members of the Madison
Main Street Program decorated the tent and tables in a black-and-white
racing theme. Three tables of Regatta racing memorabilia were on
display for guests to browse as they visited several food and drink
stations provided by local restaurants and wineries.
Lytle said is would be a month or so before organizers know how
much profit was raised from the event. She anticipates income of
nearly $10,000. Any proceeds will be divided among the Madison Riverfront
Committee and the Madison Regatta Committee, she said.
The Jefferson County Board of Tourism provided $20,000 to help stage
the event, which topped out at more than $42,000 to pull off. The
city had to pay for first class airfare to fly in five people, including
actor Jim Caviezel, his agent and acting coach.
Other actors who attended included Jake Lloyd of Carmel, Ind.; Chelcie
Ross of Chicago; Paul Dooley of Los Angeles; Mark Fauser of Marion,
Ind.; and Frank Knapp of Nashville, Tenn. Movie co-writer and director
Bill Bindley and his brother and co-writer, Scott Bindley, attended
along with their family members and the investors, producers and
many film crew. Executive producer Carl Amari and his family and
friends also attended. Principle actors who could not attend the
event were Mary McCormack, Bruce Dern and Brent Briscoe, who played
Tony Steinhardt. Mike McCormick and his mother, Bonnie, also attended
the event. The Owensboro, Ky., residents are portrayed in the film
by Lloyd and McCormack.
Dozens of people who worked as extras also attended in hopes of
getting souvenirs, autographs and another shared experience with
those with whom they had shared that summer of 1999 on the Madison
riverbank to make the independent film. Seeing the movie – and
themselves – on screen was perhaps the most fun of the
weekend for them.
The actors arrived one by one and strolled the red carpet in front
of the Ohio Theatre, signing autographs on one side and doing media
interviews on the other. TV news crews from area cities were there,
along with photographers and fans.
Inside the downstairs screening room of the Ohio Theater, the Bindleys,
Lloyd and Caviezel appeared on stage with Madison Mayor Al Huntington
before about 500 people for a short presentation and speeches. Huntington
read a letter from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels congratulating the
movie makers and actors. Then the camera rolled, amid many cheers.
Local residents enjoyed seeing local sites, such as Hinkles, Shipleys,
Rogers Corner and the IKEC power plant, on the silver screen. The
movie screening was frequently interrupted by shouts of joy and
cheers. Even a few tears were shed in the serious moments of the
film. Or perhaps they were tears of city pride.
Following the screening, the crowd made its way outside to the tented
Gala Party, where they spent the next three hours celebrating. By
noon Monday, the tent was gone, but the celebrating continued the
following weekend when the movie had a national limited release
on April 22 to about 25 cities in 93 theaters. That first weekend,
it grossed $265,000, according to Hollywood published reports.
“That’s almost $3,000 per theater, which is not bad,”
Vonderheide said.
MGM executives have said they would make a decision on expanding
the release to more cities based on the movie’s performance
the initial weekend. No word was available at press time.
•••
Earlier in the day, the actors
gathered inside City Hall to meet one-on-one with the media. Each
actor took questions from reporters from the local area and Louisville,
Cincinnati and Indianapolis. They also spent time signing posters
and other items. Outside in the parking lot behind the building,
they created a hand impression in slabs of concrete that will eventually
become part of a sidewalk dedication to the movie that will be erected
in front of the Ohio Theatre on Main Street. Demaree Automotive
Group sponsored the hand impressions, while Vail Holt Monument Co.
is providing a Hollywood-type star that will soon be part of the
sidewalk display. It will be similar to the one already in place
for the 1958 movie, “Some Came Running.”
Bill and Scott Bindley arrived first to take questions from reporters.
Bill discussed the pros and cons of making independent films, saying
as a director you have more creative freedom, but funds are limited
and it is more difficult to get the finished product to the theaters.
(It took six years to get “Madison” released.)
"You trade the creative freedom for knowing the film will come
out," said Bindley, 42, who lives in Los Angeles.
Once made, however, the film was twice picked up by a studio, only
to see the first (Premiere Marketing & Distribution Group) go
out of business and the other (Artisan Entertainment) bought out
by a bigger company before the movie was released.
In time, things worked perhaps for the better, considering that
during this time, Caviezel’s star power was growing. He made
several movies after “Madison,” including High Crimes”
(2002), “The Count of Monte Cristo” (2002), “Highwayman”
(2003), and, of course, his now famous “The Passion of the
Christ” (2004). He followed that with “Bobby Jones, Stroke
of Genius” (2004) and is now working on a new movie, “Unknown,”
an independently financed thriller.
Caviezel’s work as Christ in “The Passion” made him
a household name. Director Mel Gibson did a favor by putting trailers
for “Madison” on the film when it was released in spring
2004. People in Madison saw the trailers but had no information
on when, or if, the movie was really coming out. It was a year later
before it did, this time with the help of MGM, which no doubt saw
the bankability of Caviezel’s new-found fame.
But the film’s marketability speaks for itself, if you ask
Caviezel. “It’s a great script; that’s why I did
it.” He turned down a part in another film to do “Madison,”
and for free. He gave up his salary to make the movie “because
I believed in it.”
Caviezel recounted a day riding home in the car with his wife, Kerri,
from an interview for a part in the studio-produced movie, “X-Men.”
He had essentially been offered the role but would have to give
up doing “Madison.” His wife turned to him and said, “You’ve
got to do ‘Madison.’ “ Caviezel agreed.
Caviezel said he saw the flavor of “Hoosiers” in the movie.
A high school basketball star himself, he had been affected by “Hoosiers”
and saw a personal message of hope in the script for “Madison.”
“The story is about us, and the American dream. It touched
me,” he said.
Having grown up in Indianapolis, the Bindleys said they were going
for a true Indiana-based film in the style of “Rudy,”
“Hoosiers” or “Breaking Away.”
Scott Bindley says the movie is “closer to ‘Breaking Away’
because of the family aspect of the film.” They even wrote
Madison Mayor Don Vaughn’s part with “Breaking Away’s”
Paul Dooley in mind. Dooley wound up playing Vaughn to a tee and
is perhaps the most comfortable of all actors in his role on the
screen in “Madison.”
Or maybe it is just that he is a great actor.
The Parkersburg, W.Va., native said he grew up in a small town on
the Ohio River similar to Madison. He loved it here and enjoyed
his six-week stay in 1999. He even conducted a makeshift acting
workshop for Hanover College drama students and others on the outdoor
patio at the Broadway Hotel & Tavern one night in 1999.
The Bindleys said they wanted a father-and-son type movie, “but
we tried to push the comedy,” Bill Bindley said. “In “Breaking
Away,” it’s a good story, but the human element was real
good. Our film has been getting laughs in the right places.”
For several months, the movie has been playing in pre-release screenings
in select cities to help generate grassroots support. Bindley said
the response has been overwhelming. “I don’t think this
is a movie for boat racers or people who live in small towns. It’s
a movie for everyone.”
The vintage Unlimited hydroplane racing provides a colorful backdrop
for a family story of relationships and how this particular family
overcomes everyday obstacles in life, he said. Scott Bindley referred
to the crowd reaction the film received at the 2001 Sundance Film
Festival in Park City, Utah, saying, ‘You won’t find a
more artsy, fickle group of moviegoers than at Sundance, and we
had 1,200 people on their feet cheering when the movie was over.”
Bill Bindley said he has a lot of personal memories from making
the film in Madison. He enjoyed seeing a rough cut at the October
2001 Heartland Film Festival in his native Indianapolis. But now
that MGM has picked up the movie for distribution, it has been polished
and bolstered by a professional score. But perhaps the best addition
was getting Seymour native and rock star John Mellencamp to do the
narration as the voice of young Mike McCormick.
Bindley recounted the story of how that came about, saying it started
because they were using the same talent agency. Bindley had been
using a temporary narrator, “a guy from Kentucky who did a
great job. But John has this great speaking voice – years
of smoking gave us that, I guess. And I thought it would be great
to have him do this.”
Mellencamp was unsure at first if he would sound right for the part,
but he nevertheless invited Bindley and his crew over to his home
music studio near Bloomington, where Mellencamp spent one day reading
the parts.
“He was a real natural,” Bindley recalled.
Bindley also described what it was like shooting a film on location
in such a small town like Madison. “Just look at this place
– it’s like a back set at Universal. We drove around
in golf carts and we could close Main Street in five minutes. Where
else could you do that?”
Scott Bindley likened the making of the movie to the actual boat
race in 1971, where the underfunded Miss Madison team with an all-volunteer
crew overcame the odds to beat the corporately funded Miss Budweiser
and Atlas Van Lines II to win the Gold Cup. “Our independent
movie was up against similar odds to make it to the big screen,
but now here we are.”
Everyone loves an underdog. So maybe they’ll love “Madison.”
|
