Movie Listings Columbus Ohio

For women of 'The Help'

When Kathryn Stockett wrote The Help in New York, she was embarrassed to show the manuscript to anyone other than her mother, her writing coach and Tate Taylor, who has been her friend since they were 5 years old in Jackson, Miss.

"I started reading it on the plane," says Taylor, who had moved to Los Angeles. "Somewhere over Ohio, I said, 'This is amazing. It has to be a film.' I wanted the rights."

Stockett's manuscript was rejected 60 times before being published in 2009.

"Nobody was reading the book at that point," she says.

"So when it came out, I had the screenplay done," says Taylor.

He had made the independent films Chicken Party (2003) and Pretty Ugly People (2008), but no major motion picture. Producer/director Chris Columbus (the first two Harry Potter films) admired the movies, so when Taylor sent Columbus the script for The Help, the film got rolling.

And the project stayed in the family: "Both of our moms have parts with pretty good face time," says Stockett.

Carol Lee, the housekeeper for Taylor's family when he was growing up, has a speaking part. And Stockett's daughter Lila plays young Skeeter.

Their friend and fellow Mississippian Brunson Green is one of the producers. And Octavia Spencer and Allison Janney, friends who appeared in Taylor's previous films, were cast as Minny Jackson and Charlotte Phelan.

Taylor acknowledges his good fortune: "It doesn't take much to figure out this probably is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

The cameras stop because a supporting player hasn't picked up the right prop during a holiday benefit auction. The scene is reset. Then character "Beehive No. 6" gets between the camera and the action. Time for Take 3.

The scene being shot in the grand old Elks Lodge -- standing in for the Robert E. Lee Hotel ballroom, site of the fictional 1963 Jackson Junior League Annual Ball and Benefit -- is pivotal in The Help. Taylor's screen adaptation of best friend Kathryn Stockett's super-selling novel about unexpected relationships across the racial divide during the civil rights era opens Wednesday.

Despite miscues that break the flow of the action, no one expresses any serious annoyance. The cast and crew crack jokes and start again during filming last summer.

League president Hilly Holbrook -- champion of the Home Help Initiative that would require white households to have separate bathrooms for black housekeepers -- wins a pie baked by Minny Jackson, the maid she has accused of stealing her mother's candelabra.

Unitedcasting | Blog | Independent Film ?Horrors of War? to Debut ...

Columbus, Ohio (PRWEB) April 28, 2006

The feature length independent film ?Horrors of War? will have exclusive sneak preview screenings. Previews are scheduled throughout May and June in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Austin, Youngstown, and sneak previews have already sold out in Ohio. The film, co-directed by John Whitney and Peter John Ross, was shot and produced entirely in Ohio.

?Horrors of War? takes place in Europe in World War II, centering on a group of GIs that encounter science fiction and horror based phenomena in battle. Crossing genres like ?X-Files? and ?Saving Private Ryan,? the storyline follows Lt. John Schmidt as he comes face to face with a horde of Nazi nightmare secret weapons. ?Horrors of War? was made with an eye for bigger production values found in most indie films.

?With the downward trend in big Hollywood movies, and alternative like our film appeals to audiences,? said says producer/co-writer Philip R. Garrett, formerly of DreamWorks, who left a job working on Disney animated features to work in independent film in Central Ohio. ??Horrors of War? mixes genres and has action, horror, humor, and science fiction. This film is very different. It offers people something they can?t find anywhere else.?

Horrors of War is the first feature film by directors John Whitney and Peter John Ross, both award winning short filmmakers. Co-director John Whitney had recent airings of his short film ?Passion? on The Independent Film Channel as a finalist in the IFC Media Lab contest. Producer Sean Reid, formerly with E! Entertainment Television, made his feature ?Redemption? in Los Angeles before moving back to Ohio.

?We were able to make something really ambitious with a World War II setting, science fiction elements, and special FX that show just what we have to offer in terms of various film talents,? says Peter John Ross, co-director of the film. ?I can?t wait to show it on the big screen all over the country.?

World War II Re-enactors were brought on board the project to bring authentic props, vehicles, weapons, and costumes to the film. Most World War II re-enactors are former Civil War re-enactors that have switched over to something more contemporary. The new trend extends to re-enacting D-Day on Lake Erie as well as other famous battles from the 1940?s. World War II re-enactors came from several states away to participate in the filming. They also acted as extras in the larger battle scenes in the film, adding scope with realism.

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