SWEET HOME CHICAGO - PRESS

REELCHICAGO.COM

New investment kick starts development for $3.5 million feature produced by L.A.-Chicago alliance

Director Dan Halperin and his producing partner Carey Lundin have set a late summer target date to start shooting their $3.5 million Stuart Dybek adaptation "Sweet Home Chicago."

The project has been long in development, but a new influx of local private equity investment has brought the film back to the front of the production slate for Halperin's Los Angeles-based Epiphany Pictures and Lundin's local Viva Lundin Productions.

"We've been so frantically busy for so long, now we're saying, before we start anything else we're going to go for this and get it done before the weather turns bad," Halperin said.

"We have other [financing] sources outside Chicago who have said, 'once you get to a certain level, we'll cover the rest.' Now we need to fill that gap so we can get to the point where the next money can kick in."

The initial investment is covering development costs and has allowed the filmmakers to bring on casting director Scott David of April Webster Casting ("Mission: Impossible 3").

Halperin said they're in talks with several "actors originally from Chicago who have national and international visibility."

Years ago, producer Mark Frazel acquired the rights to "Blight," a story in Dybek's "The Coast of Chicago," which was a One Book-One Chicago selection last year. Halperin adapted the script with Terry Schwartz and Robert Birnberg.

It's the story of four teenage boys who start an ill-fated rock'n'roll band in 1959, as their South Side neighborhood has been declared a blight zone, the White Sox are in a pennant race, and Cold War fears loom large.

Halperin and Lundin are looking for a neighborhood where they can not only base their location shooting, but also set up production offices and housing for out-of-town cast and crew like Halperin, a Chicago native who lives in Los Angeles.

"You get involved with a community, and they get behind you," Lundin said. "We're going into communities that have never been asked to be part of filming before. Not everything has to be about Wrigleyville or Michigan Avenue."

One challenge is to identify locations that can provide the story's period detail on a relatively modest budget.

"We have to shoot scenes tight with the actors and use stock footage to get the breadth and history of the period," Halperin said. "It's our job as filmmakers to create a universe, and if we're effective at that, audiences will buy into the motif."

"Hopefully the viewer will feel like they just took an El into 1959," Lundin said. "You can go into this lost Chicago and be a part of that world."

Producer Sunny Pinedo Chico, who is former school board president Gery Chico's wife, is helping the filmmakers liase with neighborhood groups and set up an internship program with local high schools. "We feel it's important to expand the Chicago base of talent," Halperin said.

SEE WWW.EPIPHANYPICTURES.COM
Written by Ed M. Koziarski



REELCHICAGO.COM

Independent Production Roundup

DAN HALPERIN of Epiphany Pictures will be in town for the Aug. 2 Indiefest premiere of their feature "Road Kings" (formerly "Road Dogs") a "black 'Easy Rider'" by writer/director Detdritch McClure due out from Lions Gate. A Chicago native based in Los Angeles, Halperin plans a Spring 2005 local shoot for his feature directorial debut "Sweet Home Chicago" based on the Stuart Dybek story "Blight." The "Sweet Home" screenplay is a selection of the Indiefest Market Aug. 7-8. Contact local producer Carey Lundin at 773/ 991-5655 or see WWW.EPIPHANYPICTURES.COM.



REELCHICAGO.COM

CONNECTING THE DOTS: Meeting, dealing, being inspired by new ideas is what going to Sundance is all about

by Carey Lundin, Co-Producer
Indie feature "Sweet Home Chicago"

I didn't go to Sundance just to watch movies. I went to soak up the creative spirit of the vanguard of filmmakers.

I went with Dan Halperin, the co-writer, director and co-producer of "Sweet Home Chicago," the coming-of-age story of four teenagers on the South Side of Chicago in 1959. Dan's a veteran of Sundance, who met Steve Soderbergh the year the independent world changed with the premiere of his "Sex, Lies and Videotape."

Like most indie filmmakers, we are searching for financing and the right cast. To be taken seriously, you have to see and be seen at Sundance. The buyers and studios are there for the same reasons: To make deals, and to see what people are talking about and doing.

All other festivals are training wheels for Sundance. Even Slamdance, screening across the street from Sundance's Main St. theatre, was a radical upstart just a couple of years ago. Now it's an important venue for finding new talent.

We realized that producers are dot-connectors. For instance: Last fall our screenplay was selected by the IFP Marketplace in New York. There, we met a director looking for editing help, so we introduced him to our editor. His film premiered last week at Sundance. That's where we met his executive producer, who lives in Chicago (sorry I can't name him) and he soon may be embarking on his next film venture. From New York, to Sundance, to Chicago, we're connecting the dots.

Dan Halperin

So was the HD "Down to the Bone." It's a wintry day-of-a-film about a working-class mother going through recovery. The film rang so true it could have been a documentary. Then there were documentaries that took obvious liberties with the truth. Because Sundance accepts these films, so does Hollywood and the general public. In the end, storytelling is the only thing that matters.

At Sundance audiences wanted to know, is it film or digital? And more surprisingly nowÑis it a drama or a documentary? For an answer, look at last year's winner, "American Splendor." The lines are becoming blurred.

Film is an open book right now, and it's all about expression. And we're excited with the prospects.

by Carey Lundin, Co-Producer
Indie feature "Sweet Home Chicago"

I didn't go to Sundance just to watch movies. I went to soak up the creative spirit of the vanguard of filmmakers.

I went with Dan Halperin, the co-writer, director and co-producer of "Sweet Home Chicago," the coming-of-age story of four teenagers on the South Side of Chicago in 1959. Dan's a veteran of Sundance, who met Steve Soderbergh the year the independent world changed with the premiere of his "Sex, Lies and Videotape.

Not only did we make connections, but we were inspired by what we saw. Sundance accepts wildly novel and edgy ideas, which both inspired us and reinforced that some of our ideas were acceptable within that context.

A perfect example was Lars Von Trier's "Dogville," an Ibsen-like filmed play with hand-held camerawork by the director himself. Barely more than a staged reading, it was a cinematic adventure.



REELCHICAGO.COM

Producer vows 'the magic will happen' to bring script to screen — "Sweet Home Chicago" up next for Epiphany Films' Dan Halperin and Mark Frazel

When Mark Frazel and Dan Halperin of Epiphany Pictures asked me to produce their feature film "Sweet Home Chicago," to be shot here next summer, I said "yes!"

The "Sweet Home Chicago" screenplay, written by Terry Schwartz ("Little Nikita"), Robert Bernberg and Dan Halperin, was accepted into the prestigious IFP Marketplace held recently in New York. As you know, that's where industry executives get an early glimpse of what could be the work of the next Spike Lee, Quentin Tarentino or Coen Brothers.

Our goal was simple: to meet as many executives as possible and we did. The week started with the IFP Gotham Awards - red carpet, celebrities, paparazzi. Dan worked the end of the red carpet like its official greeter. There, he cornered Ismail Merchant, Alec Baldwin, Sam Waterston, Matthew Modine and countless executives he had pitched in the past.

Bingo! During the cocktail party a development executive told Dan he was ready to help us make our movie.

Mark and Dan have been quite successful so far. Artisan just picked up their indie feature, "Road Dogs," with Glenn Plummer and Chris Spencer that filmed in L.A. Their TV series with Norman Jewison, "Picture Windows," in which famous directors made short films base don famous paintings was sold to Showtime. And PBS ran their "Phenomenon: the Lost Archives," a documentary series around formerly classified government secrets.

"Sweet Home Chicago" was almost sold at one time, but Dan felt so strongly about it, he refused the offer. Call it lunacy, call it love or call it a dream.

"Sweet Home Chicago" is about four teenage boys wanting to avoid the bleak future that awaits them in their 1959 South Side neighborhood, by forming the greatest blues band ever. Once they convince the nuns to let them play the church fair, fame and fortune is surely theirs.

But this is no cakewalk, as everyone and everything conspires against their success. While "urban renewal" bulldozes their neighborhood, the Sox play for the pennant and the threat of nuclear war is a reality, bandleader Dave Lujack enlists his three best friends, Ziggy Zelinski, Deejo DeCampo and Pepper Rosado to pitch for another outcome.

It's a modern take on "Stand by Me," "Diner," and "American Graffiti" but instead of beautifying that era, Dan's vision is to meet it head-on by integrating newsreel and stock footage that depict life the way it was — or the way Ziggy, who believes an atomic bomb will be dropped on the city the night the Sox win the pennant, fears it might be.

"You have to fight for your film," is the credo of every independent filmmaker and the words spoken most often by executives at the Market who spoke on panels entitled: "Attaching Name Actors to Your Script, "Risky Business: Why Invest in an Independent Film," and "Meet the Buyers, United Artists /Miramax/ Goldwyn/ Universal-Focus Films."

What they all said was: If you're not in it for the long haul, you're not going to end up talking to them for a distribution deal, a negative pick-up, or production money.

To raise money in Chicago, our next step is to enlist the services of a high powered Hollywood casting director. Without a bankable cast, we canÕt raise the money and without the money we can't secure a cast. It's the old 'which came first, the chicken or the egg story,' but we'll crack it, "The magic will happen," says Dan.

Carey Lundin is a partner in Ontario Street Media, a media strategy and production firm, managing public relations campaigns and producing political ads and PSAs.

from 17 October 03



REELCHICAGO.COM

Epiphany's Chicago-set feature to be co-produced by New York company

Epiphany Pictures got a boost in the long development of their dream project "Sweet Home Chicago" with the signing of new 4th Row Films of New York to co-produce the feature.

Producers will be 4th Row founder Doug Tirola, Epiphany partners Mark Frazel and Scott J.T. Frank, and Carey Lundin of Adelstein & Associates.

Epiphany director Dan Halperin plans to shoot the coming-of-age film in Chicago next summer with a budget between $3.5 and $7 million.

The four heroes and bandmates of "Sweet Home Chicago" live in Pilsen in 1959 as the working class neighborhood is declared an official federal blight area, against a backdrop of Cold War paranoia and the White Sox pennant race.

Halperin met Tirola at the IFP Market in New York in September, initiating talks that finally led to the 4th Row's commitment to the project.

"We felt some strength in our union, that together we'll have the wherewithal to put the casting and financing together to put us over the top," Halperin said. "I've felt for some time that to get this film made will take a confluence of all three coasts, including the middle coast of Chicago." Halperin, a Chicago native, and Frank are based in Los Angeles. Producers Lundin and Frazel are in Chicago.

Frazel found the source material some dozen years ago: Stuart Dybek's Nelson Algren Award-winning short story "Blight." "'Blight' is a perfect rendition of coming of age in Chicago," Halperin said. "The characters are ten years older than me, but it was still so reminiscent of my experience."

Frazel introduced Halperin to Dybek and helped secure the rights to the story. "That was an odyssey in that Stuart didn't have an agent at the time &mdash" it accelerated his getting an agent," Halperin recalled. "When I met him he was an amazing character, and when I read his stories I was blown away."

Halperin turned to two school friends to write the script with him, UCLA classmate Terry Schwartz ("Little Nikita,") and St. Ignatius classmate Robert Birnberg, recently seen as Ozzie's yoga teacher on MTV's "The Osbornes."

Like the protagonists of the short story and film, Halperin and Birnberg had started a band together in high school. "The coolest thing was to play a sock hop and know all the girls were looking at us," Halperin said. "We knew like three songs and we would play them over and over. One night we played 'Light My Fire' for 20 minutes non-stop."

Halperin went on to other projects while he labored to cobble together the financing for "Sweet Home." Now he feels the time is right. "It's me saying, 'dammit, we're going to do it,'" he said. "I've never felt more confident."

Halperin has the pedigree to back up his confidence. He and Frank produced "Road Dogs," "an 'Easy Rider' for the hip hop generation," which recently sold to Artisan Entertainment. An April release was scheduled prior to Artisan's buyout by Lion's Gate, and Halperin said he had no indication that plans for the film had changed with the buyout.

Epiphany produced the Emmy-winning Showtime series "Picture Windows," with director Norman Jewison ("In the Heat of the Night") as executive producer. A different director made a film based on a famous painting for each episode. Halperin directed the pilot episode, based on Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" and Harry Petrakis' Greektown-set short story "Rosemary."

SEE EPIPHANYPICTURES.COM

- by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com



SUN TIMES

Movie Talk

One part of Stuart Dybek's Coast of Chicago, Mayor Daley's latest "One Book, One Chicago" selection, is heading to the big screen. Director Dan Halperin of Epiphany Pictures is planning a feature film based on the book's "Blight" story — considered by many to be the best short story ever written about Chicago. One major Dybek fan is Studs Terkel, who called the writer "Chicago's blue-collar bard."

SEE EPIPHANYPICTURES.COM OR 4THROWFILMS.COM

Written by Bill Zwecker, Sun Times Columnist bzwecker@suntimes.com