The Chicago expatriates of Soul Mate Pictures are back in town this January to make the company’s third film, “Rain Today.”
Directed by veteran stuntman Carl Paoli (“Minority Report,” “Jurassic Park III”), “Rain Today” stars Robert Hildreth as a man who sustains a major head injury and experiences a succession of flashbacks and hallucinations until the nature of the injury is revealed at the end.
Featured are child actress Taylor Bright, and writer- producer Kellie Halihan, Paoli’s partner in Soul Mate Pictures. “Carl likes to work on themes of magic and the supernatural and spirituality, things that aren’t everyday occurrences,” Halihan said. “Although this film is dramatic and sad, we like to do more happy and positive stories.”
Halihan relocated to Los Angeles with Paoli last year, and she’s been struggling to land Hollywood roles. “I haven’t found much in L.A. yet,” she said, “but I just got a new manager and a new agent. A good way to go about breaking into the Hollywood door is to make your own work.”
The partners have three feature scripts in development, and hope to go into production on one of them in the coming year.
Soul Mate’s prior films were the comic fantasy “Nenu” and an adaptation of Neil Simon’s play “Chapter 2.”
Paoli has an impressive list of stunt credits. They include stunt doubling for Keanu Reeves in “Hardball,” and for Rowan Atkinson in “Bean.” He’s been a regular stunt coordinator for the HBO series “Oz.” Paoli also played the villain in Artisan’s Wes Bentley thriller “Soul Survivors.”
Before starting “Soul Mate” with Halihan two years ago, Paoli made the indie thrillers “Cotton Mouth” and “Wicker Park” with producers Nicholas James Schodtler and Eddie Fernandaez for BackPay Pictures.
A 10-year theater veteran, Halihan acted in Chicago indies “Hale Bopp,” “The Rest of Your Life,” and “Under the Bus.”
“Rain Today” is being shot by Pete Biagi, who among numerous DP credits was also a camera operator on Robert Altman’s “The Company;” and by Mark Eaton, who shot the 2003 Blink-182 documentary “Riding in Vans with Boys.”
Reach Halihan at kisluvaddict@yahoo.com.
? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com
