The Inland Echo

By Michael Breckenridge

I just got the call from my agent about an hour ago that she was hoping I could be on the set Sunday morning. That’s tomorrow! The call time? 7:15 a.m. The place? Downtown Spokane, Washington. Exterior shots. At 7:15 in the morning. Did I want to come over. Um, no. Sorry. I was polite, of course. After all, she is my agent. But I’m just getting over a cold, and I still feel kinda cranky, and enduring minus degree windchill factors (or at least it would feel that way) is not what I had in mind for a Sunday morning. But there would be interior shots too! Later in the day, of course. No, I’d be an icicle by then, probably hypothermia, frostbite, sudden death.

I’m just not a cold weather person. Well, that’s not entirely true. I love a mug of hot chocolate while looking out the lodge window in the Rockies as much as the next rugged traveler – been there, done that. But just being out on the sidewalk downtown challenging the weather to a battle of wills is really not for me. The weather will win. That’s why I go to Hawai’i! (You knew I’d get to that eventually, eh?)

North By Northwest Productions (NxNW) is in charge of this movie, which is expected to take 21 days for principal photography. Of course, those usually end up being double-long days, and with the weather we’ve been having it will indeed feel like 40 days and 40 nights. Paula Davenport of the The Spokesman-Review, Spokane’s daily paper, said president Rich Cowan of NxNW told her that the film will be made up of almost all local actors and 40 local crew. The film will air on the Lifetime Television Network first, then get released on DVD.

The movie’s plot summary runs something like this: the main character is a fortysomething “loveable rogue” who must turn his life around to earn the fortunes his grandfather has bequeathed to him. Nice high concept for a romantic comedy, surely to be a heartwarming film for the holidays, which is why it’s no small coincidence that the main character is named “Doc Holiday.” Now, what is a bachelor supposed to do to prove he is a stable family man? Naturally, he has to get some kids and a wife, so he adopts two orphans and marries his housekeeper. So that’s the romantic part. How he goes about meeting these requirements of his grandfather’s will is the comedy part.

Davenport said the feature-length movie (which will be called either “A Family For Christmas” or “The Holidays”) is the recipient of a $150,000 grant from the state of Washington, the first monies from a new film fund, quoting Harry Sladich, a board member of WashingtonFilmWorks and president of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau.

She also said the fund was designed to “revitalize” filmmaking in Washington. That’s honest. Last year, there was an actual strike against NxNW because they weren’t paying everyone union scale wages. That movie was “Home Of The Brave” starring Samuel L. Jackson, which left the home of the brave for Vancouver, B.C., for a short time until union officials hammered out an acceptable deal with NxNW, causing production to return to Spokane. Suddenly moving any production to a new city is an expensive and troublesome affair, and it points up some serious image problems Spokane has in the eyes of some Hollywood producers that we’re a third-rate city not worthy of union-level wages, regardless of union status (half or more of all production personnel in Spokane are non-union). It was reported at the time that some people on the crew weren’t being paid at all. Of course, that begs the question: why were they working for free; but I suppose it amounts to exposure, which leads me back to the weather, and how I’m going to avoid dying of exposure.

It’s 34 degrees right now, but 94% humidity makes it “feel like” 31, according to the National Weather Service report. It could get up to 51 degrees tomorrow by the time everyone goes inside, but the shoot will start when it’s still 34 out. I’ll be home. Maybe put on a pot of Kona coffee and dream about far away places. Sounds like a good Sunday plan to me!

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