Sean C. Morgan
Independent filmmaker Paul Bright of Sweet Home is filming four motion pictures this year, one of them in Sweet Home.
The local shoot, for “Forgotten Hero,” the first of the four, was scheduled to begin around Sweet Home and Eugene this week. The suspense-thriller tells the story of an Iraq combat veteran. Those will be followed by two shot in Texas and one in Los Angeles.
“Forgotten Hero” will be Bright’s seventh feature film.
“I wanted to tell a story unique to our beautiful mountains,” Bright said. “It’s easy to disappear in the Cascade Range; no one knows how many people are living off the grid in the forest. There’d be no one to save you if you run into the wrong kind of person. That’s the movie I’m making. I like to call it ‘survival of the luckiest.’”
By setting the film in the isolated Cascades rain forest, in a fictitious version of Foster that is more like a Cascadia, the nightmare of a family attacked by starving neighbors feels convincing, Bright said. They are saved by Trevor, an ex-combat soldier, who may be their hero or may be their worst enemy.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen,” Bright said. “There are a lot of twists in this movie. When you think he’s a great guy, he’s not.”
The family he assists is the same way, he said. “In the last 60 seconds, there is a double whammy that throws everything out of balance.”
The film recently completed casting with an all Oregon-based talent pool, Bright said. Kate Young of KEY Talent in Eugene handled casting.
Mathew Bostrom stars as Trevor, the combat soldier, recently returned from Iraq. Bostrom is a familiar face in the Eugene theater world, appearing in many productions at Actors Cabaret along with his work as a professional singer. He recently returned from the Los Angeles A Capella Festival and will open at the Cottage Theater in the musical “Secret Gardens” in early April followed by “Les Miserables” at Actors Cabaret.
He also appears in the syndicated television show “Eugene Unedited,” said Young, who also is involved in that show.
Young has made him aware of “a very large talent pool here, (actors) who aren’t getting a lot of work,” Bright said.
Heather Liddycoat, Patrick D. Green, Stuart G. Bennett, Mike Hawkins, Peter Young, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Patty Gray also star.
Paul Fleck, a former marketing executive with Paramount, is executive producer. Bright wrote the script and will direct.
Not only does Oregon have strong acting talent, said Bright, formerly of Texas – it has scenery. One thing he’s observed in big-budget Hollywood films is the exotic scenery and magnificent vistas.
“Those things don’t exist in Texas,” he said. “Texas is just not scenic. Here we have these gorgeous forests and vistas.”
It rains a lot too, and that’s especially helpful setting the mood in a suspense-thriller.
“The setting is perfect for this kind of film,” Bright said. He’s also been impressed with Oregonians, who “have been so wonderful, so incredibly welcoming.”
As an independent artist, his job is different from a Hollywood filmmaker.
Independent film making is art created for a specific audience, he said. His job is to offer a different perspective on life.
“My job is to observe life and then show life to other people so they can understand that,” Bright said.
In “Forgotten Hero,” he’s observing returning combat veterans.
They return from war but they are not provided the support they need to deal with issues related to combat, he said. Returning combat veterans are committing suicide at a higher rate than mortalities on the battlefield. In some cases, people lauded as heroes become gunmen.
“This is just a totally unaddressed issue that’s starting to have an impact in this country,” Bright said.
Bright has been telling stories since he was a young child, he said. “It’s my passion. Some people are born or grow up feeling like there’s something they’re meant to do.”
Film was it for Bright, he said. Since he was in school, he could see that he was good at telling stories and entertaining people. He worked as a railroad conductor. He worked for an airline, drove bus, was an organic farmer and was executive director for a nonprofit organization.
He’s done it to experience as much of life as he can, but he’s always come back to his passion for telling stories. Film, he said, is the medium providing the most control over the story. A stage production doesn’t last. A film, especially with modern technology, can easily reach anyone who wants to see it.
Working as an independent, his approach to the public is radically different from Hollywood. Hollywood will screen test new films when they are complete, and then edit them in response to the feedback, Bright said. In his case, he can ask a question on Facebook and receive immediate feedback.
He posted the question, “What do people think about somebody who is AWOL?”
He received 60 to 70 strong comments in response, information and viewpoints he never would have heard, he said; and it gave him a different perspective. That helped him make an informed decision with his script, but he won’t say what that decision was.
“I know what kind of reaction it will elicit,” Bright said.
Fleck brings the advantages of Hollywood and marketing expertise to the project, and Fleck is working with Bright on all four films this year. Fleck worked for Paramount when “Forest Gump,” “Titanic” and two “Star Trek” films were hits.
“Forgotten Hero” is aimed at general audiences at about a PG-13 level. Bright said he anticipates a fall release.
After filming “Forgotten Hero,” he will direct “Long-Term Parking” in Texas, based on a book of the same name, which he adapted for film.
“(The author) tried to shop that movie around for awhile,” Bright said. “It is uniquely different. It’s very racey. Nobody is comfortable knowing how to sell it.”
“Long-Term Parking” is a bizarre comedic tale of a bounty hunter who jumps back and forth between two different worlds, killing and being killed, nine times in fact.
It’ll be a cult film, Bright predicted. It reminds him of “Tank Girl,” which has gained a cult status. It should appeal to the same audience.
He will produce a second film in Texas, “Donovan,” a drama written by Jason Bee. It is an autobiographical film about bipolar disorder.
Bright recently read an article in an entertainment magazine that asked the question, “Why does Hollywood get bipolar wrong?’
This isn’t the answer to that question, but its goal is to portray it correctly.
“This is a much more authentic telling of what it’s like to be bipolar,” Bright said, exploring how they fit in, hold down jobs, have careers and family.
In Los Angeles, Bright will film “Jolly Holiday,” another drama about a group of single friends in their 40s and 50s who get together and talk out their lives.