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| Veteran actor Pierrino Mascarino plays the title role in “Uncle Nino.” |
December 5 will be an important day for “Uncle Nino’s” writer/director Bob Shallcross and producer David James as they remap up for test market screenings in Grand Rapids and Muskegon.
If the screenings measure up to the criteria, there’s a good chance the film will link with a national distribution. The two important things in an indie film like this, said Shallcross, are word-of-mouth, which he hopes will launch the Michigan screenings, and a good review. The Catch 22 is, however, that an undistributed film can’t be reviewed.
“So if you know anyone in Grand Rapids,” said Shallcross with a smile, “tell them about the movie.”
Shallcross, a former award-winning Leo Burnett creative director-turned spot director-now feature director, spoke to the audience after a recent Pipers Alley screening Nov. 13, coincidentally the 56th birthday of “Nino” star Joe Mantegna.
Produced with first-class Hollywood production values, “Uncle Nino” is a story of an emotionally disconnected family as they pursue individual interests and are brought together by an Italian uncle, with secrets of his own, who wakes up the family and helps restore family values.
The father, Bob Micelli (Mantegna), concentrates on winning a promotion; the mother, Marie (Ann Archer), can’t get her family to sit down to dinner together. Their alienated and unhappy teen-age son, Bobby (Trevor Morgan), plays with two punks in a garage band, and their 12-year old daughter, Gina (Gina Mantegna), is demanding and self-centered. Descending unexpectedly into their lives is Mantegna’s Old World Italian Uncle Nino, Pierrino Mascarino, whom he’s never met.
“We were blessed with a cast with an amazing breadth of talent,” said Shallcross, who began writing the script five years ago. “I always saw Joe in the role, he was always in mind.”
For the crucial role of violin-playing Uncle Nino, the producers went to Rome, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago to cast. “We found Pierrino in L.A. He was the second-to-last actor we saw that day,” Shallcross recalled.
Ironically, the Kankakee-born veteran actor had personal experience with family alienation. His father kidnapped him and raised him in Italy and his mother reclaimed him and brought him back to the U.S.
The movie shot for more than three weeks last year at The Glen, the redevelopment community of the Glenview Naval Air Station, and a week in Tuscany, Italy.
Although the movie was storyboarded, director Shallcross did not use them. Rehearsal took place on the day of the shoot, with only two-to-three takes. “We had no playback, so I had to be very confident,” he said.
Larry Pecorella displayed his amazing breadth of talent by writing every note of music in the entire score, including Uncle Nino’s violin pieces and the garage band’s heavy metal songs. He produced the music in the Czech Republic. He and Shallcross have seamlessly worked together for 15 years.
“Uncle Nino,” the second Shallcross-James feature, took top honors for best dramatic feature from last month’s Heartland Film Festival and opened the Marco Island festival in early November.
