Six Columbia College alums will proudly walk the red carpet Saturday night when their ambitious first feature premieres at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Their $2 million indie feature, “Chicago Overcoat,” a totally local project, will be one of only five Chicago-made films among the 150 entries from throughout the world that will screen at CIFF, Oct. 8-22.
That’s a pretty terrific introduction to the movie world for the twenty-somethings: Producer John Bosher and director Brian Caunter, class of 2006, who were joined by production manager William Maursky, DP Kevin Moss, casting director Charles, and production designer Philip Plowden, class of 2007.
“Chicago Overcoat,” an old mob term for coffin, was made on a $2 million budget and shot 50 days in Chicago in October and November of 2007. Bosher and Caunter wrote the story, Andrew Dowd and Josh Staman the screenplay
It stars Frank Vincent, of “The Sopranos,” as Lou Marzano, an aging hit man in the winter of his life. As he takes one last contract to finance his retirement, homicide detective Ralph Maloney is nipping on his heels.
The washed up, alcoholic detective is played by Chicago native Danny Goldring, 31-year veteran of innumerable TV shows and some 20 movies, the most recent as Grumpy in “The Dark Knight.”
Other stars are versatile tough guy staples of both sides of the law: Mike Starr, who starred as a mobster in the 2007 Chicago-made indie, “Osso Bucco,” and Armand Assante, who played a detective in “The Steam Experiment” that shot recently in Grand Rapids.
