(Martha (Bonnie Bedelia) ‘securing’ Alex (Melissa Fumero) | Photos courtesy of Two Twisted Sisters Production)
A Stone in the Water, a dark thriller shot and produced entirely in Bend, will be screened at a one-night -only special event on December 14.
A Stone in the Water stars veteran character actor Bonnie Bedelia (Diehard, Presumed Innocent, Salem’s Lot), Melissa Fumero, from NBC’s hit sit-com, Brooklyn 99 and David Fumero, who plays a continuing role in Sony TV’s cop drama, LA’s Finest. The three lead actors, all from Southern California, are supported by a cast including Central Oregon’s finest actors. Kim Leemans, Mary Kilpatrick, Kara and Ryan Klontz and David De Costa are among this impressive cast and crew. Their ages range from 70 to six weeks.
Stone was selected to debut at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the largest film festival in the southern U.S. The festival, now in its 34th year, boasts over 70 thousand admissions over a two-week plus schedule of foreign and domestic feature films and shorts.
A Two Twisted Sisters Production, Stone, was written and directed by local resident, Dan Cohen and produced by Howard Schor and Kathryn Galan. The entire crew, headed up by cinematographer Gneel Costello, production designer Gary Loddo, AD Jesse Locke and editor Josh Williams, live and work in Bend. The original score was written and performed by Colten Tyler Williams and Billy Mickelson, hair and makeup created by Mandy Butera, wardrobe by Sandra Doolittle and special visual effects designed by Micah Mahaffey.
The production, which entailed a crew of over 40, included local artisans, professional filmmakers and college age interns. Producer Schor, who has given birth to BEAT and more than 40 local theater productions, complemented the crew, “It was amazing how our team rose to the challenges of bringing the script to life.”
Principle photography, which took place in more than a dozen locations from the City of Bend to Prineville, was completed in 19 days. Exteriors included a farm in the Deschutes River Woods area and a small cemetery halfway between Bend and Prineville. Interiors ranged from a basement on the west side of town to a farmhouse whose interior has seen few changes since the early 1930s. Three evenings of night shooting began at dusk and ended at 3am. Rain fell unexpectedly and the temperature dropped to the mid-30s during a morning shoot at La Pine State Park, but the cameras still captured a scene that called for an actor to take a chilly dip in the river.
Producer Kathryn Galan, a veteran who has worked for the Walt Disney Company, said, “We’re proud of this movie and eager to get it in front of the Bend audience.”
Cohen, also writer/director of the award winning Diamond Men with Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg, describes Stone as “a dark thriller for adults,” because the plot centers on complex characters who carry the weight of catastrophic, past events that were largely out of their control. “And then there’s the movie’s tag line, ‘Love breeds madness’.”
The movie’s official synopsis suggests the darker elements that drive the narrative. “An all but forgotten murder, 35 years in the past, triggers a violent collision in the present, between two desperate women; a grief stricken farmer and a pregnant waitress on the run from a botched robbery.”
The story, set mostly on a rural farm, draws on elements from horror classics Misery and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. “Yes, and this film has the added dimension of two women (Fumero and Bedelia) — while from totally different worlds — are driven to wild, even insane lengths out of the love of their children,” said Schor.
Saturday, December 14 | 6:15pm and 8:15pm
There will a brief discussion of the movie’s production before each screening.
The Eagle Mountain Event Center | Across from Robberson Ford, just below Boot Barn.
Tickets: bendticket.com $10, $15 at the door
Parking is ample at the Eagle Mountain Event center.
Call Howard Schor, 541-419-5710, for more information