Bentonville Film Festival fans lucky enough to land a ticket to the competition film "F.R.E.D.I." will get an eyeful of familiar scenery: The sci-fi adventure was shot right here in Northwest Arkansas last summer. Bentonville's downtown square, the Walmart Museum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art are all featured prominently, though eagle-eyed viewers will also spot scenes shot in Rogers and Fayetteville as well.
In the movie, "F.R.E.D.I." stands for "Future Robotics Engineering Design Innovation" and is also the name of the robot at the center of the plot. It is the creation of a scientist, Dr. Andi Palmer, who tries to smuggle the robot away from the hands of the corporation that plans to use it for nefarious means. When some kids discover "F.R.E.D.I." in its hiding place, it's up to them to keep the robot out of the wrong hands.
If that plot is reminiscent of the great adventure movies of the 1980s that featured a band of intrepid kids saving the day, it's deliberate. Skipstone's Johnny Remo, a producer of the movie, says he was a big fan of movies like "E.T." and "The Goonies," and the fact that the spirit of those movies was reflected in ""F.R.E.D.I."" was one of the things that drew him to the material.
"I was instantly attracted [to "F.R.E.D.I."] because of the type of movie it is," says Remo. "I like stuff that is family-oriented. I also distribute about 20 movies and have an outfit deal with Sony Pictures, and we mainly do faith and family content. We just feel that there's too much violence and nudity in movies today -- you can't sit down with a family to watch them. This movie has no kissing, no holding hands, no sex, no violence, nothing that you couldn't sit down with a 6-year-old and watch."
Remo wrote, directed and produced "Saved by Grace," which appeared at the Bentonville Film Festival two years ago. That was his first introduction to Northwest Arkansas.
"I got off of the plane and saw rolling hills with cows and big wheels of hay," he remembers. "Then we started to get closer to town, and I realized it was actually a very high-tech place. When we got to the [Bentonville] square, I said, 'This is where we have to shoot "F.R.E.D.I."'"
He says shooting here was an overwhelmingly positive experience.
"The people here were just magnificent," he says. "We were able to rent places pretty inexpensively, we had the support of a local 'big box' store, and we got to shoot in Crystal Bridges, which is the first time anyone has ever shot there. I can't say enough about McClarty Daniels Nissan: They got us about $300,000 worth of cars to shoot. We had a lot of food vendors who gave us free food when we put them in the movie. The [Bentonville] Police and Fire departments helped us with blocking streets when we had to shoot on the street. Mayor Bob [McCaslin] was great. We had support from locals that you just don't get in places like Los Angeles."
Mark Landon Smith, creator of the Actors Casting Agency, was ahead of the curve on seeing Northwest Arkansas as a viable center for film and television production. He created his talent agency in 2013, when film producers Jennica and Ryan Schwartzman first shot a series of films in the area. He says he had a feeling then that there would be a production boom in the region's future.
"When Jennica and Ryan shot 'Gordon Family Tree' here, they really inspired film making in Northwest Arkansas because people saw that you could really do it," he says. "Other companies started looking at this area, too."
Smith submitted local actress Laurie Pascale for consideration for a speaking part in "F.R.E.D.I." -- and Pascale was cast in the film. She recently moved to the Northwest Arkansas area from Pine Bluff and thinks that the availability of work like this indicates that she has made the right move for her career.
"I thought, 'I may have positioned myself in a really great spot,'" she says. "The fact that it's centrally located, not quite the middle of the country but pretty close -- I've been telling people for years the world is coming to Northwest Arkansas, and I thought, 'Well, I think I'd like to be a part of that, too.' There are a lot of opportunities here for me as a working actor. I've done commercials, industrials, training films ... there seems to be a thriving artistic community, and I think the rest of the country is taking notice of it."
NAN What's Up on 04/29/2018