Liars and Lunatics :: Film Blog

It’s been a year to the date since we had our first meeting with Karen Lynn Gorney (John Travolta’s co-star in Saturday Night Fever). Yes, a year ago, we were hoping to secure her for our feature film Liars and Lunatics.

After our initial contact, we began to email back and forth for some days. We had forwarded a copy of the script. In fact, we had just written a new opening voice-over which was intended for her character to read.

At the time, she was performing in an Off-Broadway show, so we had to work the interview around her performance schedule. Finally, we settled on Friday afternoon on June 16, 2006.

It was a hot June day. We arranged to meet in the Regency Room on the 2nd floor of the Salisbury Hotel in Manhattan. However, when we got there, we discovered that the Numismatic Society (they collect old coins) had already booked that exact same room!

Fortunately, we were able to get another meeting room on the 5th floor. But there was still one problem, we had no way to contact Karen Lynn Gorney about the change…

Well, we dealt with the situation by stationing one of one of our people (our Production Coordinator, Maria) at the elevators to meet Karen and bring her to the new meeting location. When she stepped off the elevators, Maria had to explain the mix-up. And by that time, the elevator doors had already closed again. They waited and waited for another elevator to come. None came. Finally, Karen said, “Aren’t there some stairs in this place?”

And so the two of them walked up to the 5th floor.

Introductions were made with Roberto Munoz and our casting director, Michael Kricfalusi. We discussed the script. We discussed the role of the Judge. We also discussed the new voice-over which we wanted her to read.

The voice-over which retells the struggle of Jacob wrestling with an angel (nothing literally to do with the movie’s actual plot, but full of symbolism, symbolism, symbolism). Karen mentioned having a painting on her wall of this very scene of Jacob wrestling with the angel. So we discussed that, too. (Funny. We’re actually now working on a new screenplay right now about a character named Jakob.)

As for the end of the meeting? Well, the rest is history…

On this date, one year ago…

We Moon Brothers posted our final open casting call for our independent feature film Liars and Lunatics.

We had already been auditioning for the film since February 2006. And we had had a good response from the casting notice we placed in the audition trade newspaper, Backstage.

From February to May, we waded through probably close to 1,000 headshots of actors of every description. And arranged for a good number of those actors come in for a screentest. Yet, by this time last year, we still needed to fill a few roles.

Including the role of the protagonist James; and that of his dead girlfriend, Paige. Plus we hadn’t yet firmed up anyone to play the role of the Judge.

Since we were in the middle of getting the paperwork to become signatory to SAG (the Screen Actors Guild), we were able to post an audition notice on their website…which we did on June 5, 2006.

As a result, we had to wade through a whole new set of headshots! Which also meant, more screentests. And the stress of choosing the right actors for the parts.

At this time, this year, we’re still feeling the stress. Okay, so we’re not pouring over screentests anymore, worried about which actors to choose (By the way, looking at the footage of the film at this stage, we’re very pleased with the actors we chose). Now we’re in the final stages of tweaking the film to get the best possible product. And that’s not easy… especially with film festival deadlines looming…

{{ photo :: The audition sides – short selections from the script – that the actors read for their screentest. }}