Another Happy Day Premieres

We are now in Sundance for the long awaited premiere of Willy's first movie! Getting tickets to actually get to see the movie was a bit like robbing Fort Knox, but alas, our manager, Sue, pulled it off and got three tickets for us to the premiere. The premeiere was this past Sunday, Jan. 23 at the Eccles theater at Park City High School. It is a 1,500 seat theater and was completely sold out. My oldest childhood friend, flew in from Ft. Lauderdale that morning, so I went to the waitlist line to try to score a ticket for her. Fortunately, I got there pretty early and was number 11 in line. They gave out 200 waitlist numbers and the first 40 got in for the show.

Willy walked in with the cast for the red carpet press session and we have a few great photos of him with some of the stars. He then went in to the theater with the cast and sat in a special section with all of them for the showing. Rick, Dana and I had great seats center section and waiting anxiously for the lights to go down.
The movie is full of some great laughs and moved me to tears several times as well. The performances by Ellen Barkin, Ezra Miller and Ellen Burstyn were stellar. Many in the audience were commenting that they were oscar worthy performances. The movie was emotionally intense and truly shows how destructive and hurtful families can be to their own members.

Willy had a few of his scenes cut, but was still quite visible throughout the film and had four or five scenes with his lines intact. As a mom, I was actually somewhat relieved that some of his racier lines had been removed as had the make out scene with a 24 year old, although I do feel badly for the 24 year old as that was her only scene. Several of the cast from Michigan made the trip out and Willy was very happy to reconnect with his fellow cast members.

He also thoroughly enjoyed the after parties thrown by Mandalay and went without his parents. He was busy meeting producers and directors and handing out his business cards. He got in at 2 AM the first night and we gave him a curfew of 1:00 am last night. We also had a fellow Michigander and castmate looking after him so he had some supervision and an escort to see him home safely. He also knew he had to come in and give his mom the chance for a "hug and sniff" before he went to bed. It was reassuring to find out that I didn't have anything to worry about as he passed my tests with flying colors!

When we arrived on Friday evening, we received  a new audition for a Disney tv movie so we had to prepare and tape that audition while we were here. The movie is called "Geek Charming" and Willy is auditioning for the geek! I'm not sure how'd they'd make him look like a geek. Since we had to tape it away from home, I didn't have the chance to shop for geek accessories! Hopefully they will be able to see past his teen cuteness and see the geek within!

Still no word on distribution plans for the movie. I'm really hoping it might win an audience award here at the festival. It hasn't been one of the most talked about by critics, but I think the audiences were behind it. Only time will tell!

In the meantime, major kudos to Ellen Barkin, Ellen Burstyn, Ezra Miller, Kate Bosworth and Demi Moore! Jeffrey DeMunn was a sleeper...he was so dead on funny and I had no idea that was coming! Fantastic performances by all!

Movie goes to Sundance!

It's been all quiet on the western front for awhile, but this past week, Willy got an audition for a Disney TV series and we learned that his film was selected for the Sundance Film Festival! Not just selected but is in the the top 16 films competing for the prize. Almost 4,000 independent films were submitted, 115 chosen and 16 compete in each of two categories, Dramatic and Documentary. Having gone through several title changes, while it was called The Reasonable Bunch during filming, it is now being referred to as the Untitled Sam Levinson Project! Rather than changing the title multiple more times, I guess they decided to wait until they had a title they really liked!

So, we are taking Willy out to the Festival and have booked our flights and will stay at a friend's place. Getting tickets to the premiere of his movie, however, is proving more difficult than I imagined! By the time the movies are announced, most of the tickets have been sold! What tickets are left don't guarantee being able to see a specific selection and are mostly for movies towards the end of the festival. We will be there at the beginning and hope to be at the world premiere of the movie on Sunday, January 23. Willy's manager has assured me that she will come up with tickets for us somehow!

In the meantime, Willy has met with his local acting coach, Steve Blackwood, to prepare his sides for the Disney audition. We plan to tape it this Sunday so I have to come up with his "anime geek" costume asap. I have to admit that his practices of the scenes are looking quite good. I'm beginning to think maybe he can act after all!

End is in sight

Willy worked late again last night and is still sleeping. It's 12:30 pm on Monday, Sept. 27. He filmed his pool scenes on Saturday and between near exhaustion and being in and out of a warm pool in cold weather, he is coming down with a cold. Thank goodness he can sleep during the day!

In last night's dinner scene, Ellen Barkin got a chicken bone stuck in her throat and was taken to the hospital. The scene they were in the middle of continued but after the last take of that scene, Willy was wrapped and sent home. I hope she is ok. They pushed one of last nights scenes to today as a result which means that Willy will have another very late night tonight and he has to take two tests on set. Tomorrow is his day off, but that means he can sleep all day!

He also just got another audition for a movie called "We Bought a Zoo" starring Matt Damon and directed by Cameron Crowe. He is auditioning for the part of Matt Damon's son. I think he's probably taller than Matt Damon so don't know how that would work out! I was panicking a bit as to how we were going to tape the audition and edit it and get it there in time, but Siobhan Fallon told me at lunch last night that she just has her son tape her with a Flip video camera and uploads her auditions that way! Much easier than what I was planning to do! So we have to try to fit that in before Rick and I leave for Napa Wed. morning. Willy has to memorize the lines for three scenes first!

He last film days are this Wed. and Friday and then he is done!!!! Yay! I think he's probably happy that I won't be here to see his make out scene on Friday! Still don't know who the random girl is going to be. I'm just hoping it isn't someone a lot older than him! Although pretty much every girl on the set is at least 5 years older. And some were alot older than that! I guess he may learn something in the process! Just don't want him learning too much!

Till next time!

End of the all nighters

It is Monday and Willy and I got home at 5:30 am this morning. He has today and tomorrow off although since he worked half the night, he'll spend his day sleeping which means missing another day of school. I had no idea when we signed on that he would have to stay there all night...three nights in a row no less! I'm hoping that is the end of that schedule! He has day time shoots later this week. The powers that be on this movie don't pay any attention to the child labor laws and ignore me when I bring them up! I have our agent and manager looking into it today. I'm not sure what my options would be on set. If I walk out with him I worry that I'd be in violation of our contract. I think they assume that these kids are just so happy to have a chance to be in a movie, that they can schedule them however they want. And many parents I'm sure go along with it because they think they are promoting their kids careers. I just want Willy to get enough sleep and stay healthy!

There were some exciting scenes over the week-end. Demi's dancing scenes were a hoot. And Eamon, once again proved that he is a master at improv. Willy got a kick out of being able to hang with Ashton Kutcher and talk sports. He was surprised that Ashton was not more outgoing and funny. He also asked me how much older Demi is than Ashton. I said I wasn't sure and he said he could tell she was alot older because she has old lady knees! Too funny!

For the next two weeks, we'll be back to a smaller group of actors as all the extras have now finished as well as Demi, Tom Church and Siobhan Fallon. Siobhan was really fun to have around. We will miss her! My sister told me that in the beginning it would all be very exciting and then as the days go on, it gets to be mundane and exhausting. She was right. Last night, instead of watching more scenes, I took a nap in my car!