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Vanishing investor imperils county’s Hollywood dreams

Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram

“Not in Ohio” may become “Not in Lorain County.”

Or anywhere else for that matter.

The long hours that J. Carlos Gonzalez and a small but loyal band of fellow movie lovers have devoted to making their fantasy-adventure movie a reality may be fading faster than the houselights going down at the local multiplex.

As with so many independently made film projects, the culprit is cold, hard cash, or more appropriately, the lack of it.

“We had a signed, notarized agreement, and we kept getting assurances the money would be deposited, but now he’s disappeared and is not returning our phone calls,” Gonzalez said Wednesday. “I guess he flew the coop. The reality is we may be pulling the plug.”

The “he” is an investor Gonzalez declined to name who agreed in January to put up $500,000 for the movie.

Described as a hybrid of “National Treasure” and “The Goonies,” the film was slated to shoot for one month this summer in Cascade Park and other local sites.

The plot of the movie revolves around a group of childhood chums who reunite as 30-something adults to search for a fabled lost city of gold detailed in a treasure map they buy online.

“This has the potential of being very good for us and the area,” Gonzalez said. “We felt we were so close. It’s very discouraging. This is hurting a lot of people. There were a lot of dreams involved here, not just mine.”

An online trailer for the film produced by writer-director Gonzalez included footage of the lost city, World War II fighter planes and pterodactyls swooping down over Cascade Park, a pirate ship and a teenaged girl being chased by a roaring Tyrannosaurus rex. The film was to have a cast of 30-plus actors.

The agreement stated the investor, a one-time Chicago resident, had 30 days to come up with the money. The money was supposedly coming from profits the man was to make from a business venture.

“Well, now it’s April, and we haven’t seen a dime. … We are hurting and scrambling to secure funds,” Gonzalez wrote in an e-mail this week that detailed the film’s rocky status.

Henrik Larsson, a Swedish producer who teamed with Gonzalez for his first small-budget film, last year’s “That Day,” had phone conversations with the would-be investor.

“He told Henrik he had lawyers working on it but wouldn’t give any names or (phone) numbers,” Gonzalez said. “That’s when the red flags started going up.”

In January, Gonzalez said he had lined up two Ohio-bred movie professionals for the project, including stunt coordinator Gus Park, whose credits include the FX series “Rescue Me,” and make-up effects artist George Simpson III, who worked on the 2003 werewolf-vampire horror fantasy “Underworld.”

Both men originally agreed to work with Gonzalez during the lengthy strike by the Writers Guild of America earlier this year. But they could soon become unavailable if definite offers materialize for other film work.

“They can’t turn down other jobs,” said Gonzalez, who fears that nearly all of his cast will be lost if the project stalls. “If we push shooting to next summer (2009), the younger cast would be too old.”

Other investors are being sought, but the situation may force a decision about the film within the next 10 days to two weeks.

“We’ve been doing a lot of praying. We’re hoping for a miracle, but even with faith, there has to be work. If it looks like nothing is going to happen, we may have to pull the plug,” he said.

To check out the “Not in Ohio” trailer, visit www.ohiomovie.homestead.com.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

This website is owned and maintained by J. Carlos Gonzalez