" The Trouble With Frank"
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Greensboro
Bon Jovi in Triad to film movie
By Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane Staff Writer
News & Record
PLEASANT GARDEN - On any other weekday morning, Ray McDaniel and Mark Griffin would be helping find temp jobs for other people as executives for USA Staffing.
Wednesday, the Greensboro men were doing a temp job of their own as extras in "The Trouble With Frank," a National Lampoon comedy starring rock singer Jon Bon Jovi.
It was the first day of shooting on the film, which will be shot through early June at locations across the Piedmont Triad.
McDaniel and Griffin reported at sunrise to Hagan-Stone Park, where they portrayed executives of a fictitious toy company getting a product pitch from a character played by Bon Jovi.
"I am amazed by the detail, and how time-consuming it is to make what is going to be a three-minute opening scene in a movie," Griffin, an attorney for USA Staffing, said during a break.
Crews were expected to finish filming at Hagan-Stone Park late Wednesday, then move on to other venues. Among those will be scenes in a courtroom and in ice hockey arenas.
Filming is generally closed to the public, and producers try to keep most locations confidential while filming there.
But in mid-May they will seek thousands of extras for crowd scenes in ice skating arenas, at dates and locations to be announced later, said Phil Smoot of Asheboro, a producer of the film with Matty Simmons and Bill Greenblatt of Los Angeles. Those who show up will see several of the movie's stars, including Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi stars in "The Trouble With Frank" as Frank Hopper, an inventor and lovable loser who decides to finance the first all-female hockey league with credit cards and finds himself in legal hot water.
Audiences will relate to Bon Jovi's plight of getting caught up in credit card debt, Greenblatt said between film takes Wednesday. "It has the same National Lampoon sensibility of poking fun at real life," Greenblatt said.
Also starring are Estella Warren, a magazine cover girl whose films include "Kangaroo Jack;" Cary Elwes of "Robin Hood: Men in Tights;" "Saturday Night Live" alum Nora Dunn; David Faustino of "Married With Children" fame; and Jonathan Furr, the young star of "Two Soldiers," an Oscar-winning film also shot in the Piedmont Triad.
Warren plays a trial attorney and love interest for Bon Jovi's character. Elwes plays Warren's boyfriend, a district attorney set on bringing Bon Jovi down. Dunn portrays Bon Jovi's sister, while Faustino is his best pal.
Directing the film is Arthur Hiller, whose directing credits extend back to 1950s television series. He directed such movies as "Love Story," "The Lonely Guy," "The Babe," "Silver Streak" and "Plaza Suite."
At sunrise Wednesday, sections of the normally peaceful Hagan-Stone were filled with trailers, equipment and about 100 crew members and extras, most from North Carolina, Smoot said. That provides a boost to the local economy and to the Triad's filmmaking industry.
Bon Jovi was the only star present during the morning filming. As the sun rose and clouds cleared, boosting the temperature by 20 degrees, Hiller and first assistant director Jim Goodman guided the opening scene. Although most movie scenes are shot out of sequence, they chose to film the opening scene first.
As he paces before toy company executives McDaniel, Griffin, and actors Pam Galle and Kerry Maher, Bon Jovi's character showed his latest invention, a toy named the Boomerazoo, "the most amazing new toy since the boomerang itself was created by Australian cavemen," he says.
Galle, playing the company's owner, challenges his story. "The boomerang was a creation of the Aborigine tribe more than 100,000 years after the caveman," she says.
"Exactly," Bon Jovi's character responds.
Like a boomerang, the Boomerazoo is supposed to return to the thrower. But when Bon Jovi's character tries to demonstrate, it doesn't exactly work.
Shouts of "rolling," "action," "cut" and "print" rolled over the crowd as crews repeatedly shot the scene from various angles.
Bon Jovi smiled and talked with Hiller, actors and crew members during breaks, but declined requests for media interviews.
While they filmed, other extras waited for their scenes. About 1,200 people showed up at three calls for extras in Greensboro last week, and talent coordinator Dana Zimmer has been calling many back for filming.
"I have never experienced anything like this, just to see how it all works," said Tina Thomas of Greensboro while waiting to appear in the background in a park scene. Her husband, Doug, plays the executives' limousine driver. Their three children and son-in-law will appear in hockey scenes.
A few featured extras will be paid, but extras in crowd scenes do it for free. It can mean spending a day on a set with the hope that their faces will appear on the silver screen.
Zimmer, the talent coordinator, had asked McDaniel and Griffin to play toy company executives in the opening scenes.
They didn't have any lines, and didn't expect to get paid. But they came away with greater appreciation for the detail and coordination of the film business. "It's interesting how they re-create the scene over and over from different camera angles," McDaniel said.
After spending hours standing in temperatures that changed from chilly to warm, they plan to keep their day jobs. From: www.news-record.com