Local director Mark Donnell to embark on filming for latest project

By Nancy Raskauskas

Gazette-Times reporter

On Sunday afternoon, those with aspirations of being in a feature film got their chance to audition for the big screen at the Majestic Theatre.

Local director Mark Donnell held an open casting call for "Extreme Used Cars: There Is No Hope," a dark comedy meant to be a sequel of sorts to 1980's "Used Cars," which starred Kurt Russell.

Donnell wrote the original screenplay for the project and will begin filming at locations around Corvallis and Albany next week.

Donnell has written 14 screenplays in all, as well as acting in commercials and working on numerous films, but this will be his first solo project.

"This is my first real motion picture, that's the real deal," Donnell said.

There were still a wide variety of bit parts available for casting on Sunday.

"We're looking for high-school graduates that still have their cap and gown," said Donnell. "Also, middle-aged couples and families for a montage scene."

Donnell has already signed veteran actor Ian Reid Kessler to play a supporting role in the film. Kessler, who lives in Los Angeles, will be the most high-profile actor in the film, with six sitcoms and 10 major movies to his credit.

One of the main orders of business on Sunday was to pin down an actor to play the film's main character, used car salesman Chip Douglas.

"He's a chemically-imbalanced schizophrenic that was subject to the highest concentration of acid (LSD) you can be exposed to and still survive," said Donnell. "So, he daydreams about killing his customers and co-workers.

"It's a comedy, a dark edgy comedy," Donnell said. "But look at 'Borat.' It made $500 million, so let's go for it."

Director of photography, Greg Ouellette of Bend, describes the vibe of the film as sort of a cross between the film "Repo Man" and the T.V. series "The Office."

"I'm not sure what rating this is going to get. I don't think he (Donnell) is too concerned about that," Ouellette said.

In all, the production crew will include 12 people behind the camera, including several University of Montana film students and about 40 characters in all.

The budget is less than $200,000 for the entire production, which makes it a "Super ultra low budget Screen Actors Guild film," according to Donnell.

Most filming will be at South Pacific Auto Sales and Lakeshore Lanes in Albany, but there will also be several scenes filmed in Corvallis at undisclosed locations during the roughly 12 days of filming before principal photography wraps.

Sunday's casting call drew a modest crowd.

Caleb Kearns, an actor from Portland, tried out for the role of Chip Douglas, delivering the lines, "I'm a car salesman, nothing more, nothing less," during his camera test on the stage at the Majestic Theatre.

His entire audition was over in a matter of minutes, but he was hopeful of his chances.

"That's the way these things always go," said Kearns. "A two hour drive and then five minutes."

Darren Ferguson, another actor from the Portland area, has already been in six low-budget films this year. On Sunday, he tried out for the role of a middle manager at the used car lot.

"It seemed like a fun and challenging role," said Ferguson.

"I was a little tense waiting," he added, "but I just tried to take all that angst of the character and put it into the audition."

Donnell helped run lines with some of the hopefuls during their auditions.

"I know it all by heart," said Donnell, who has taken the film through about 50 rewrites over 10 years.

Last year he decided to chuck the entire screenplay and start over.

"I spent seven days with the computer and wrote it again from scratch," he said. "All of a sudden we had a really good product."

Still, many challenges await the crew in the coming weeks.

"It's quite an ambitious project," said Ouellette. "This will be a challenge for all of us."

"We've already broken the first rule of low-budget films, which is to not write in any car explosions," said Ouellette. "We've got six molotov cocktails thrown into cars."