LADIES crew quizzed + update
With C-U Blogfidential being off its game during the bulk of the summer following an exhilarating stretch of time bopping between three local film sets, the eleventh edition of “Ebertfest,” and the crimson-colored third issue of C-U Confidential, many stories alighted on the back burner instead of heating up the Interwebs where they belonged. Such is the case with legit coverage of everyone’s favorite new C-U dance movie, LEADING LADIES, which several other area publications handled capably. The project has attracted attention outside our corn-studded cities as well, starting with the modern dance on-line weekly, GenDance.com, which published a series of interviews with key LADIES personnel last month.
Producer/co-director Daniel Beahm reports in a LADIES e-newsletter that GenDance interviewed himself and co-director/co-writer Erika Randall Beahm for their August 13 edition while conversations with the primary cast members – Melanie LaPatin, Benji Schwimmer, Laurel Vail, Shannon Lea Smith, and Nicole Dionne – dominated the August 27 issue. Beahm also states that editing is progressing at a clip with the hiring of two assistant editors to help along his own efforts; several scenes have been assembled and the first trailer is on the way. Finally, he reveals that extensive updates to the official Web site will probably wait until post-production is complete, but one can always look for news on the Facebook page or skim the extensive who’s-who list added to IMDb.com.
And, CUBlog stumbled upon the tidbit that LEADING LADIES dancer Kherington Payne, who figures in the film’s grocery store fantasy sequence, is also a featured performer in the remake of FAME which opens nationwide on September 25 from United Artists. Take that one with you to the water cooler on Tuesday after enjoying the holiday tomorrow – with a spring in your step, of course.
~ Jason Pankoke