Hollywood with home fries

Apr 11, 2010

Wareham got a little taste of Hollywood (and Hollywood got a little taste of Wareham's finest bacon) on Wednesday night as Manjughosha Films stopped by the Mill Pond Diner to shoot a scene for their upcoming independent film that is tentatively titled "Seraph."

The movie follows the nephilim (half-angel / half-human) Grey, played by director and producer Adam Liam McCleery, who offers people the chance to return to a time when they made a life-altering decision and change their actions. In return for "resetting" their life, however, they have to give up everything and everyone that they knew or gained from that point on.

The scene at Mill Pond involved Grey meeting with the archangel Gabriel. Gabriel, played by Mashpee-native Chris Robinson, loves to tease humans for their moral and ethical shortcomings. His favorite method is by appearing to humans in his "glamour version" - a Goth Pageant Princess, played by Pennsylvania-native Veronica Lane.

"It's the persona that gets the best reaction," said screenwriter Geoffrey Locke.

It got a reaction from patrons at the Mill Pond.

As Lane walked in to the diner wearing black fishnet stockings underneath short black shorts, high heels, a black corset and full makeup, Chef Tim Weisberg joked that he maybe should have checked to see what kind of movie it was...

The glamour of Hollywood, however, was soon usurped by the sundry complexities of independent fimmaking - particularly an independent film set during a Cape Cod winter that was scheduled to shoot all of its local, outdoors scenes in a week when daffodils and forsythia were blooming.

The anticipated extras never showed up, so the filmmakers themselves sat in on the scene along with Mill Pond employees and their friends.  Cook Willy Farrington, who joked that you may have seen him in such roles as the iceberg in "Titanic," texted some friends from school after he decided the filming might make for an interesting evening.

"I wasn't expecting to see the fishnet thing walking in," Farrington said.

The script called for a daylight scene, but because it was most convenient to film at night after closing, several heavy-duty halogen lamps lit up the diner...except when the fuses blew.

The diner reopened the kitchen when the filmmakers arrived and told them the scene occurred over breakfast. When filming began three hours later, the acting required to stomach cold bacon, eggs and waffles, increased with each take.

Quiet on the set was interrupted by the Beatles proclaiming that "She Loves You," setting off a confused dash to the jukebox that nearly took out the filmmakers' camera.

But for a brief glimpse of Hollywood, the extras said it was worth it. Dishwasher and Wareham High School junior Brian Dunn said he anticipated receiving calls from major Hollywood players any day now.  He said that he couldn't talk about his next major project, but said he and his friends would always remember and support the film where they got their start.

"We'll be back for the sequel!"