Young filmmaker gets William Sadler for first feature

By Michael Picarella pic@theacorn.com

Photos by JAMES FARRALLY/Acorn Newspapers MOVIE TEAM-The cast and director of "Unspoken" (from left to right): Matthew Siegan, Marc Clebanoff (director), William Sadler (bound hands), Chase Mayo, Justin Allen and Ashley Jensen. Clebanoff is from Oak Park.

Oak Park native Marc Clebanoff, 24, began shooting his first feature- length movie last weekend at a soundstage in Los Angeles. Cleb-anoff, who received a degree in the cinema-television program at University of Southern California in 2002, said his project, "Unspoken," stars William Sadler of "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Battle of Shaker Heights" and the upcoming "Kinsey."

"Unspoken" is a dark drama about five characters locked in a room together who prepare for their untimely end by revealing the darker side of their relationships.

"The whole movie basically takes place in one room," Clebanoff said. "It’s kind of like a stage play on film. It’s primarily dialogue-driven and it takes place in real time. As an hour and a half progresses in the theater while the audience is watching it, an hour and a half progresses within the screen."

The movie is similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s "Rope," Richard Linklater’s "Tape" and Sidney Lumet’s "12 Angry Men."

LIGHTING CHECK-Director Marc Clebanoff views a monitor to check the lighting on actor William Sadler prior to shooting a scene at a soundstage in Hollywood last Saturday. Oak Park native Clebanoff is directing "Unspoken," a screenplay that he also wrote.

Those involved in the movie include award-winning director of photography Scott Fitzpatrick, who will shoot and edit the movie; Emmy- nominated composer Christopher Caliendo, who will score the sound-track; Justin Allen ("Judging Amy"), Ashley Jensen, Matthew Siegan and Chase Mayo ("The Polar Express"), who will star in the movie; and Chad Everett ("Mulholland Drive," "A View from the Top") who will lend his voice as narrator for the opening and closing of the film.

Clebanoff expects the movie’s length to be about 80 minutes. Sadler will appear in about 10 minutes of the picture.

Sadler worked on the project for one day last Saturday. Clebanoff said it was luck that he could get the actor.

"My lead actor ironically—and this is 100 percent by chance—has the same agent as Sadler," Clebanoff said. "Now, (my lead actor) is very up-and- coming, and so it was in (this agent’s) best interest to put him opposite one of their bigger clients."

According to Clebanoff, Sadler read the script and loved it.

"Sadler was at the top on my list for this one key role," Clebanoff said. "I finally found out who represented him and it just so happened to be the same agent that reps my lead."

The budget for "Unspoken" is under $100,000. Clebanoff said he received funding from acquaintances who believed in the project.

Most of the photography should wrap on Aug. 31. Clebanoff expects to have the movie finished by Thanksgiving, and he’s confident it will get a very limited L.A. release early next year.

"We have a handful of distributors who are waiting to see the project, and we also have a very prestigious distribution company that’s going to be repping the film at the festivals," Clebanoff said. "They’re not distributing the film, but they may pick it up once they see it. Basically, this is a company that I worked with in the past and they’ve said that they’ll submit this for us just to give us a bigger shot at the festivals."

In April 2002, Clebanoff was involved with another feature-length movie called "The Distance." It’s a thriller, and the script requires a bigger budget than "Unspoken."

"I have investors pouring a very decent amount of money into ("The Distance")," Clebanoff said. "That film has now got a $1 million budget. That thing escalated into a much bigger project (than originally envisioned) just based on the talent that we had involved. So we have investors that want to bankroll that project, but they basically want to know that I’m able to handle a feature as a director. . . . They thought it was a really good idea for me to do this small project first." Clebanoff hopes to get the project rolling again early next year.

Clebanoff really enjoys writing and producing. The only reason he directs, he said, is to make sure his vision in the writing stays intact throughout the process.

During his college years, the young filmmaker worked at Fox and at USA Films under "Nurse Betty" and "In the Company of Men" director Neil LaBute. Clebanoff has written, produced and directed several short films and has worked on bigger projects at lower levels.