Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Foote-ing the Bill for "Alleged"



Many Flintoids were disappointed that "Semi-Pro," which was shot primarily in Flint, didn't have much footage of Vehicle City. And despite starring Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson, it didn't have much humor, either, although that bear rasslin' scene was pretty good.


It may be even harder to spot Flint in "Alleged," the historical drama about the Scopes Monkey Trial starring Fred Thompson and Brian Denehy that was filmed in the city last year. That's because the movie doesn't even have a distributor despite the big name actors in it. So it won't be screening at major theaters anytime soon. It will probably have to make the rounds at festivals in hopes of landing a distributor.

So how do you finance a relatively expensive film with no distributor in place? Beata Mostafavi of The Flint Journal explains:
The film, directed by Tommy Hines and written by East Lansing native Fred Foote, is financed by a nonprofit foundation operated by Foote's family that supports Christian-based artistic and educational endeavors. And the film, which counters Stanley Kramer's classic, "Inherit the Wind" (1960, with Spencer Tracy, Fredric March and Gene Kelly), has gotten a buzz for having a Christian slant.




3 comments:

  1. Was this filmed at Crossroads Village?? That's pretty sweet if it was!

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  2. Yes, Crossroads Village and the Grand Traverse neighborhood.

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  3. Local Flint resident (and I believe Director of Communications at Mott Community College) Michael Kelly has small role in this film, so that's kind of neat.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.