About Steve :: Actor :: Movies
NOVOCAINE
Making the Movie

2001

Dr. Frank Sangster is a dentist who only thinks he loves his humdrum life and fiancee. When a drug dealing young woman entices him into a world of sex and violence, he reevaluates everything he wants in life.

MAKING THE MOVIE     INTERVIEWS

           MISCELLANY     PREMIERE     

The film, which has no release date at this point, won't be showing at the Geneva Theatre, which closed earlier this year.
 

If you thought you saw actor Steve Martin around town recently, you weren't mistaken.

The celebrity and film makers for his latest movie in the works, "Novocaine," dined at Francesca's by the River in St. Charles, said Stephen Andrzejewski, location manager for Artisan Entertainment and former Batavia resident.

Also in the group was "Novocaine" writer and director David Atkins, who also wrote the screenplay for Emir Kusturica's "Arizona Dream" starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Fay Dunaway.

"They just raved about it," Andrzejewski said.

The group was in town because some scenes of the movie are being filmed in Geneva during the next two weeks.

The Steve Martin film "Novocaine," which began shooting some scenes on the east side of Geneva this week, will include the Geneva Motel on Illinois 38, said Stephen Andrzejewski, location manager for Artisan Entertainment. "When I was reading the script, the first motel that came to mind was the Geneva Motel," said Andrzejewski, who grew up in neighboring Batavia.

"It's got the railroad tracks, the farm across the street. It was hands-down the perfect motel for this film." The hotel will feature a new name for the movie: the Golden Slumber Motel. It will be located in a fictional town that's an amalgam of Lombard, Glencoe, Berwyn, Cicero, Skokie, Oak Park and Cedarburg, Wis., Andrzejewski said. The movie is about a dentist whose life is turned upside-down when his brother visits the same day as a seductive new patient.
 

They're he-e-ere!

But don't bother trying to get a glimpse of Steve Martin or Helena Bonham Carter, who arrived in Geneva Wednesday night to film part of the movie "Novocaine" at the Geneva Motel.

Concerned about the safety of passers-by and fans because of the 55-mph speed limit on adjacent Route 38, Artisan Entertainment is taking several precautions.

Sheriff's deputies are being stationed on the state route.

Yellow caution tape ropes off one entrance to the motel, which is known as The Golden Slumber Motel in the film. The Illinois Department of Transportation has added warning signs and sawhorses along the road.

The film company also plans to set up a giant curtain along at least one side of the motel property to prevent interference with filming. A semitrailer truck blocked the view early Wednesday afternoon to passing motorists, who slowed down to 40 mph along the stretch.

"There's really not going to be anything to see from the road," location scout Stephen Andrzejewski has said.

Movie makers also are concerned that too much of the plot might be revealed if people watch the filming. They would rather have fans see the film in theaters.

Written and directed by David Atkins, "Novocaine" centers on Martin's character, an unassuming dentist with a thriving practice and beautiful fiancee, played by Laura Dern.

His life is turned upside down when his wayward brother visits unexpectedly on the same day as a seductive new patient, played by Bonham Carter. The dentist finds himself the target of a con gone bad.

At some point Martin and Bonham Carter end up at the motel on Route 38. The movie also features Scott Caan and Elias Koteas, as well as a cameo appearance by Kevin Bacon.
 

Actor/comedian Steve Martin was in the Fox Valley last week filming scenes for his upcoming movie, "Novocaine," at the Geneva Motel. Due to open later this year, the film will be just one of many that have been filmed in area communities and featured Fox Valley landmarks. Here are some local movie facts and figures.

2 weeks of filming

Martin's "Novocaine," the story of a dentist suspected of murder after a sexy patient seduces him into prescribing drugs, will be filmed at the Geneva Motel on Route 38 until May 5. While the motel will be recognizable in the movie, it will be renamed The Golden Slumber Motel. The movie also features actors Helena Bonham Carter, Laura Dern and a cameo by Kevin Bacon.
 

Mike Kalina just hopes to catch a glimpse of Steve Martin. As one of eight Lombard firefighters who will be on the set Tuesday when Martin comes to town to film "Novocaine," Kalina has no illusions about his own star power.

 "We got picked because they have a scene that requires firefighters," Kalina said. "It's not because we have any acting abilities."

Kalina will join Greg Orlando, Don Johnson, Bill Coley, Tony Pascolla, Lt. Jeff Holst, Lt. Mike Torrence and Lt. Chuck Ralis for the 12-hour shoot at an office building along Route 53.

"We'll probably be doing some kind of fire suppression," Kalina said. "I don't see us doing any lines or close-ups. That's for the people who know what they're doing."

Written and directed by David Atkins, "Novocaine" focuses on Martin's character, an unassuming dentist with a successful practice, who becomes the target of a con gone bad.

At one point in the movie, there is a fire where Martin's character works. That's the scene being shot Tuesday in Lombard.

A spokesman for the maker of the film, Artisan Entertainment, refused to give details about the filming. He also refused to disclose the exact location.

But Lombard Fire Chief George Seagraves said "theatrical techniques" will be used to create the illusion that the rented office building is on fire.

 In addition to the firefighters, a Lombard fire truck will be used.

 "My family thinks it's really cool," Torrence said. "Hopefully, it will turn into something where we can actually be seen in the movie."

 No one knows more about the cutting room floor than Holst, who was supposed to make his big screen debut in the 1997 movie "The Jackal."

Holst and another Lombard firefighter, Art Peters, played paramedics during a dramatic scene between Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier. But the scene was cut.

"We were doing our thing right behind the actors, so we thought we were in for sure," Holst said.

 He doesn't plan to get his hopes up this time around. He's just happy to have a some buddies to talk to on the set, which will be closed to the public and media.

"Being in a movie isn't as glamorous as you would think," Holst said. "Eighty-five percent of the time you're just waiting around."

But that waiting around will be profitable. The firefighters will be given overtime pay by the village, which will then be reimbursed by Artisan Entertainment.

 Kalina said one of the reasons he agreed to become an extra was to see Martin. "His movies make me laugh," he said. "I would love to meet him."

The firefighters might see the stars up close. But, Peters warns, talking to the actors or requesting autographs is shunned.

 Peters and Holst also found out during "The Jackal" filming that extras can't even eat with the actors. They got caught sneaking dinner in the actors' tent, which had better food, like veal cutlet and smoked salmon.

"We thought that since we were playing medics, we were more important than the other extras,"

Peters said. "The casting director didn't see it that way."

Holst said he didn't mind getting caught because he does this kind of stuff just for fun.

"I'm already living my dream," he said. "I'm a firefighter."
 

Some Lombard firefighters must wait a little longer to make their big screen acting debut.

 Rainy weather forced the makers of the new Steve Martin film "Novocaine" to delay Tuesday's filming of a scene that's going to have the firefighters as extras.

Village officials say the 12-hour shoot at an office building along Route 53 has been rescheduled for Thursday. The exact location of the set is being kept secret because it will be closed to the public and media.

 Tuesday was the second time the filming in Lombard has been pushed back. An earlier shoot was delayed because the set wasn't finished.

 Unfortunately, this delay means some of the eight firefighters who would have participated in the scene won't.

 Lombard Fire Chief George Seagraves said at least two of the firefighters won't be able to make the Thursday shoot because it conflicts with their regular shifts.

The department was looking for other firefighters with days off to fill the roles. All the firefighters participating in the shoot will be given overtime pay by the village, which will then be reimbursed by Artisan Entertainment.
 

Town of Cedarburg -- Patrick Strickler and his daughter Mary were sitting at their kitchen table, taking a breather, when Steve Martin walked by in his pajamas and bathrobe. Martin turned to Mary Strickler and asked, " Is this your house? Oh, it's a nice house." He walked up their staircase and disappeared.

"Steve Martin walking by in his pajamas and robe -- it just doesn't happen, but it did," Patrick Strickler said. "The whole day was like that."

Patrick and Joyce Strickler's 1884 stone house became Hollywood Central Monday when Martin, Helena Bonham Carter and a movie production entourage showed up on their doorstep to shoot scenes for the new dark comedy "Novocaine."

"There were maybe 100 people, but it seemed like 1,000," Joyce Strickler said.

By 5 a.m., Hollywood had descended on their house, near Cedarton Estates subdivision off Highway 60. Behind the yellow police tape that was strung across the yard, crews pitched food tents, set up electric generators, and snaked assorted cables and cords throughout the yard and house.

Crews set up lights, some as big as the Stricklers' kitchen stove, to bring daylight into the overcast day. A boom crane was rigged to get landscape shots.

"I think the end (of the movie) might be a beauty shot of our farmhouse," Patrick Strickler said.

Both Strickler and his wife said the Hollywood experience began a week before the stars ever showed up on their doorstep.

Their three dogs -- Max, Ike and Belle -- got shipped off to a boarding kennel. Set designers and construction crews transformed their house -- the kitchen, an upstairs bedroom and the entire backyard -- from a house into a movie set.

The kitchen walls were glazed in a bright yellow paint. Furniture, knickknacks and even Joyce Strickler's day calendar were boxed up, rearranged or taken out.

A new green cabinet, a bed and a few miscellaneous pieces of furniture were added to the mix. Bright yellow and orange fabric imported from France covered the stove and some cabinets. A Turkish prayer rug, which previously had only been the napping spot of the Strickler family cats, was hung on a wall to cover up the thermostat. The refrigerator was moved out of the kitchen.

In its place, a carpenter built a wooden cabinet front -- the doors wouldn't open, and its sturdiness was only an illusion for the camera.

Perhaps the biggest transformation, however, took place in the yard. Flowers were added to the perennial garden, sunflowers were imported from California, the red back door and outdoor benches were painted blue. The whole facade of the house was changed.

Covering the house's heavy, dark wood siding was a masterpiece of sorts. An artist was hired to construct a false front of plaster and paint, making the house appear to have stucco for siding.

"I can't even describe what they've done," Patrick Strickler said.

The changes continued during the day of the shoot. If director David Atkins wanted bread, a crew member rushed to Breadsmith and came back with about 50 different baguettes an loaves.

"We had chickens, too, but I never saw them," Joyce Strickler said.

A wrangler was on the set, and he had chickens ready, but they were never summoned for the screen.

Another crew member was all set to run to a hardware store to get a mailbox; instead, Joyce Strickler suggested using a beautiful wicker basket for the shot, and Atkins used her suggestion.

"They were always changing things," Joyce Strickler said, adding that another change was to include her plum jam in a shot.

In between the changes, Martin and Bonham Carter flitted in and out of their house. During breaks, they were often shuttled back to the Circle B parking lot, where their trailers were set up. During one period of down time, Martin and Bonham Carter bowled a few sets. Martin, of course, bowled in his pajamas, which was his outfit du jour.

But outside of bowling, the stars' only other "real" Wisconsin experience was a frozen custard run to Hefner's Custard.

A few crew members came back bearing vanilla, chocolate and strawberry shakes. Bonham Carter had a chocolate shake.

"She said she couldn't finish it, but it was delicious," Joyce Strickler said.

During the custard run, a Channel 4 helicopter hovered overhead.

"The helicopter got (pictures) of about 50 or 60 people who were drinking strawberry, chocolate or vanilla shakes," her husband said. "It just contributed to the unreality of it."

The whole day had almost fantastic quality to it, he said.

"For them, it was all real," Patrick Strickler said. "It was like being in a dream, walking through it, and no one else in the dream was dreaming but you."

"I was watching them create reality out of unreality," he continued. "They took our house, and they created an idea of something. It was really, as they say, magic."

The magic included watching both Martin and Carter take turns to swing on their outdoor tree swing. Martin brought his yellow Labrador retriever Roger along, and Roger played fetch with a tennis ball in their backyard. They also got their pictures taken with Martin and Bonham Carter.

Before the day ended, the Strickler family presented the location manager and two set designers with signed, limited-edition prints of their house by Cedarburg artist Harold Hanson.

But the best moment, Joyce Strickler said, occurred when she ran into Bonham Carter in the front yard. Joyce Strickler took the movie star on a tour of her gardens, and then the London-born Bonham Carter hopped up onto her front porch.

"She said 'Oh, I always wanted to sit on an American front porch,' " Joyce Strickler recalled. "She is the warmest, most beautiful woman. She is really genuine. That really was the best part for me."

Patrick Strickler said that before the movie crew came, he described it as an asteroid hitting.

"No, it's like a spaceship landing," Patrick Strickler said. "It landed very gently, and it was full of all these nice people."
 

You can't keep a secret from the office rumor mill.

Long before the rest of Lombard found out Steve Martin was coming to town to film his new movie "Novocaine," workers in the Woodlake Corporate Park knew the set would be just outside their windows.

"There's been a lot of excitement around here for weeks," said Jim Born, who works across the road from the half-empty office building where film crews did a 12-hour shoot on Thursday.

"I think it's pretty cool they picked here to film a movie," the Brookfield resident said.

Written and directed by David Atkins, "Novocaine" focuses on Martin's character, an unassuming dentist with a successful practice who becomes the target of a con gone bad.

At one point in the movie, there is a fire where Martin's character works. That was the scene filmed Thursday in Lombard.

In preparation for the scene, carpenters spent more than a week making a white, single-story office building look like a burned-out structure, complete with broken windows and scorch marks.

Lombard Fire Chief George Seagraves said "theatrical techniques" were going to be used to create the illusion that the rented office building is on fire.

Thursday afternoon, dozens of onlookers lined a sidewalk near the set, but didn't see any major action or movie stars.

Instead they watched the filming of a very short segment where a woman dressed as a detective walks out of the building to her car and drives away.

"Who is that?" one onlooker asks a man standing next to him.

"She's in a movie, so she has to be someone famous," the second man responds.

The whole time Bernie Smith of Cicero and a buddy are taping everything with their hand-held video cameras.

Smith said he heard Martin and Kevin Bacon were both going to be in the scene. Never mind the fact he's not a fan of either actor.

"How often do you get to see movie stars in real life?" Smith said. "That's why I'm here."

Unlike Smith, Nanette Gianola was willing to stand in the chilly weather because she's a huge Steve Martin fan.

"He doesn't even have to talk," the star-struck Buffalo Grove woman said. "I just think it would be neat to see him."

While Artisan Entertainment enlisted the help of eight Lombard firefighters and a fire truck for the nighttime filming, a company spokesman said they didn't want the shoot to be publicized.

That baffles Lombard resident Kim Ruchalski, who said notices were sent to businesses in the office park politely asking people to "stay away" from the set.

"I'm kind of upset they're filming across the street and don't want us to be a part of it," Ruchalski said. "It's not every day a movie gets made in Lombard. Of course, we are going to get excited about it."
 

The strangest sensation of all was Tuesday morning, when we awoke to an empty, still house. Their presence had been so powerful that their absence only accentuated the incredible: Yes, it is true, they made a movie in our house one day this week.

And it was no small movie being made by amateurs, Hollywood Wannabes. No, they were the real thing, the real deal. How real? Well, Steve Martin walked past in his pajamas, nodded to our daughter Mary and smiled. "You live here?," Steve Martin said. "Nice house."

Or this: Helena Bonham Carter paused in our doorway, walked out into the sunshine toward where she would be filmed, then paused, took a disposable camera out of a pocket in her dress, bent down and snapped a shot or two of my wife Joyce's garden of perennial flowers and herbs.

 "She's English," said someone standing near us in the crowd of 50 or 60 movie people. "They love gardens." Oh, yes, I thought to myself, but that really is Helena Bonham Carter and that really is our flower garden that she's photographing.

The point was to make our 1884 stone farmhouse on the outskirts of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, U.S.A. , appear to be somewhere in France. And that's the one thing we, who own and love and take care of this old farmhouse, aren't supposed to tell you about. So I won't. I won't tell you the story. We'll all have to go buy a ticket and see the movie ourselves when it comes out someday down the road. I can tell you, though, that it will be called "Novocaine." We had agreed to hand our home over to the film crew for 11 days, although most of that time was spent planting fir trees, then extracting them. Or painting doors blue to give them that Provence look. Or moving our furniture out to make way for their furniture, then replacing it all again. The actual filming took only one day, and only a few scenes were shot in that time.

Of course, the entire process required many more people than the actors (Steve and Helena) and the writer/director (David Atkins III). It required the first- and second- assistant directors, the camera people, the lighting people, the sound people, the script people, the diction coach, the makeup and hair stylists, the costume people, the grips, the stand-ins, the animal handlers, the extras, the assistants of this and the assistants of that, the gofers, the best boys, the truck drivers, the landscape artists, the set directors, the photographer, the food guy.

At one point I looked up, and there was this tall, white- haired, nice-looking man in a bathrobe standing on the brick pathway to our back door. Right, that'd be Steve. But you know something?

They can tell you there'd be Steve Martin and Helena Bonham Carter in your house, and you believe it in a sort of intellectual way, the way you know the Atlantic Ocean is very big and wide but you don't really get it until you fly over it. So it doesn't hit you until you look up and say to yourself, "Wait a minute, I am looking at Steve Martin."

When they make a movie, they do something magic. They take where you live, your own reality, and then they spend a week transforming your reality into an unreality called a movie set, and then they put actors in there and film it and it is supposed to be real, but only it's not, it's your reality made unreal so people will believe it is real.

Toward the end of the day of filming, I heard one of the camera people say to another camera person, "I'm buying it," and he gestured with his head toward our house. "I see France," he said, and I took it as a good thing.

My wife and I know some people would rather have had their toenails pulled out with pliers than submit to this, but not us. Joyce and I have been married so long we really do know what each other is thinking at any given time, at least on the big things. And this was pretty big. The thought that went through our minds was, "You betcha, omigod we've gotta be crazy, but hey, bring it on."

It started with a phone call one day back in late March.

A site scout called from Chicago and said she knew our house from another search a few years ago when someone wanted to shoot a breakfast cereal commercial. Our house wasn't right for that job, a mere commercial, but this was a real movie, and they wanted it to look like a place in Europe, France or something, she said.

Joyce had taken this call and was still holding the phone in her hand when I came in from the yard. Her face was drawn, the onset of stress.

"You better sit down," she said, "you're not going to believe this." Right away, I thought something terrible had happened to one of our kids, so I sat down.

" They want to make a movie here," Joyce said.

"Define 'here,' please," I said.

"As in, here, this place, our house, what part of that don't you understand?"

"A movie?" I said stupidly.

"Stop that!" she shouted.

I winced. "What kind of a movie, like Hollywood?"

"Well, they said Steve Martin is in it," she said, and I felt a calm returning to the normally unflappable Joyce.

Then there was a long drawn-out time of visits by various representatives of the production company -- aptly named Numb Gumz Productions Inc. -- and we got to know these people very well and discovered they were very nice folks. We became pals. Then, after some more talking and our lawyer looking over our shoulders, we signed a contract, shook hands and put the money in the bank.

Then we put our three big dogs in the kennel and waited.

After days of prep work, the actual film crew arrived last Monday and took over our house, swept over us like locusts on a feed.

From beginning to end, I kept thinking that these people saw something I did not. The way a director frames a shot with his hands, looking through them at a place you think you really know, like your own kitchen. You see it every day, and he looks at it and he sees something else. He sees a scene in a movie, you see your kitchen.

And what about Steve Martin, walking around the yard in his jammies, totally within himself, the complete opposite of the wild and crazy guy you've seen in movies and on TV? Does he really see a "nice house"? Or is he seeing another house, one only he can see in this movie he's starring in?

I am starting to think that maybe we don't really look and see what is there. The movie people, when they look at your house, they don't see your house, they see a movie. I think that's wonderful.
 

Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, said it's important to let producers know what the state has to offer. Last week, an 1884 Cedarburg farmhouse was used to portray a French provincial home during a one-day shoot for ''Novocaine,'' a dark comedy starring Steve Martin. A ''site scout'' had identified the home as a good place for a film crew to shoot a scene purportedly happening in France.

''Since they fly over this place, they had no idea they could shoot the south of France'' here, Sheehy said.

The farmhouse -- home to UW-Madison communications director Patrick Strickler -- was chosen for its Provence-style kitchen.

In ''Novocaine,'' Martin plays a mild-mannered dentist who becomes a murder suspect after getting involved with a patient, played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Two scenes were reportedly shot at the house owned by Strickler and his wife, Joyce: one of Martin descending the stairs into the kitchen and another of Martin peering out a window.
 

I got to jam with Steve Martin last Wednesday in my living room here in Oak Park, Illinois. Here's what happened. About three weeks ago the people hired to find sites for the movie Novocaine (with Steve Martin as a dentist, Laura Dern as his girlfriend, and Helena Bonham Carter) chose my neighbor's house for its exterior and first floor to be used as Laura Dern's house. However, their bedroom was too small for the bedroom scene so they went looking elsewhere on the block for a bigger one and chose mine. Wednesday was filming day.

About noon, there was a break in the action and Steve Martin came downstairs, I assumed to go to his trailer out on the street. He stopped when he saw my banjos on stands in the living room. "Banjos" he says, "Who plays banjo?" My wife told him I did and he asked if he could play one. (Duh, that was sure a hard question to answer). So he sat down and started playing and my wife ran and got me. When I came in he saw me and asked if they were my banjos. When I said yes he said, "Sit down and let's play." And so we did. We didn't know a lot of the same tunes so we traded off playing. He was a little disappointed that I didn't have a set of finger picks he could use but did a fine job playing clawhammer, up-picking and a little quiet bluegrass. He tried my new Bart Reiter Regent but preferred my old Gibson RB-170 openback since that's what he uses for frailing. (For BG he has a Gibson Florentine) One of the props in the movie was a picture of him at age 17 playing his RB-170. He says he learned to play banjo in high school about the time the photo was taken. He went to high school with John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and I got the impression they learned together. He learned mostly from books (Mel Bay, etc.) and by slowing down records. He also said sadly that he doesn't get much chance to play anymore but he did play "The Cuckoo" which he had "just learned"

Besides Cuckoo he (or we) played Green Corn, Blue Skies, Auld Lang Syne, Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Old Joe Clark, Waterbound, Cripple Creek and many,many more. (I was too stunned to think straight, so have forgotten a lot) Pretty soon he had to go back to shooting but the rest of the day and night whenever there was a break he'd be the first one down the stairs and say "Let's play." In all we had seven sessions lasting from 10 minutes to half an hour. At one time we were playing Old Joe Clark together and I looked up and there was Helena Bonham Carter sitting cross-legged on the floor watching us. I just about lost it there.

We only got a couple of photos (we weren't supposed to take any) no video or tapes. If anyone is interested in seeing them they should contact me by e-mail since we're not supposed to send attachments to the list.

By the way, are my Gibson RB-170 and my Bart Reiter Regent worth more now that Steve Martin has autographed them? Just curious, I'm not planning to sell them.

Bill Fisher
 

An excerpt from the article seen in the Kane County Chronicle in May: 

Artisan Entertainment, which rented every room in the 26-room motel for the next 10 days, is using the site for the new Steve Martin movie, "Novocaine" which also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Kevin Bacon & Laura Dern. ... Crews tore up Room 46 Monday afternoon, putting up wallpaper and laying new carpet to the script's specifications.

The front entrance was repainted, a neon arrow was added to the Geneva Motel sign, and a steel-reiforced fiberglass panel was constructed near Room 46 for a stunt actor to climb when Martin's character scales the roof.
 

When the letter came from the Illinois Department of Commerce in March, Kitty and Suzie Carson thought it was a joke. The body of the letter was believable enough: it was just a form letter explaining that more and more movies are being made in Illinois. It was the handscrawled message at the bottom of the page that caused the doubt.

"A production company would like to use your house for a character Laura Dern is playing in a movie," the note explained.

"I didn't call the phone number, because I thought it wasn't legit," said Kitty, who lives with her twin sister Suzie at 1020 S. Grove Ave. But a few days later, she received a call from a location scout. "He said, 'do you mind if I bring the art director over to look at the house?'"

A few weeks later, on Tuesday night, April 9, the block filled up with trucks, equipment, crew people and movie star trailers carrying Steve Martin, Laura Dern and Helena Bonham Carter.

Ever since 1982, when a Yugoslav film crew from TV Belgrade shot footage at Day in Our Village at the suggestion of the U.S. State Department, Oak Park has become a popular location for movies, TV commercials and magazine photo shoots. Last year, the village received 59 requests for filming permits. And just within the last couple of months, crews showed up to film the Steve Martin movie (an independent film called "Novocain"), a PBS documentary about the history of marriage and families, a pilot episode for a TV show called "Silent Witness," and a tiny independent movie.

Hollywood tends to like individual cities for specific kinds of shots. In Chicago, for example, everybody wants to shoot the skyline. In Oak Park, it's the houses. While "Home Alone" used Grace Episcopal Church and "Backdraft" used Rehm Pool, the top draw for moviemakers by far is Oak Park's big, beautiful, old houses.

And, sometimes, the smaller beautiful houses as well. The Carson's house, for example, was chosen because it was a small, tidy bungalo.

Novocain

"Novocain," a black comedy written and directed by David Atkins, is about a mild-mannered dentist (played by Steve Martin) who is suspected of murder after getting involved with a sexpot played by Helena Bonham-Carter. In the process, he cheats on Dern, who plays his girlfriend.

"The Laura Dern character is supposed to be obsessively neat," said Bill Fisher, who lives three houses away from the Carsons at 1026 S. Oak Park Ave. His bedroom was also used in the movie. "And she's a dental hygienist. So they were looking for a neat little house a hygienist could afford."

The Carson's small living room and dining room, with their high ceilings, white plaster walls and arched entryways, were perfect. The crews even used the Carson's dining

room furniture. More often, crews supply the furniture. However, the Carson's bedroom ceilings were too low to squeeze in the necessary lights, so crews began looked around the block for a bigger bedroom. The room they chose belonged to Bill and Anne Fisher.

"Our furniture was completely removed and piled in the dining room, and they brought in their own furniture," said Fisher. Crews brought in shelves full of neat, color-coded boxes for Dern's obsessive character.

Why Oak Park?

Oak Park gets a great deal of film business because it is near Chicago and its only full-service film studio, Chicago Studio Cities, off Roosevelt Road in Austin. For TV business, It doesn't hurt that Oak Park is crawling with ad executives.

"A lot of advertising people are moving here," said location scout Oryna Hruschetsky, who lives in Oak Park. "I can't tell you how many times I've suggested shooting in Oak Park and they've said, 'oh, so I can just get up in the morning and I'm there.'"

Hrutchetsky has 228 Oak Park houses in her computer database of potential locations. She's not sure how many of them have actually been used for film shoots, but most have been used for commercials.

Hrutchetsky says homeowners can earn between $1000 and $2000 per day for commercial shoots lasting over 6 hours. "I tell companies I don't work for people who pay less than $1000 for 6 hours," she said.

Short, 30-second commercials sometimes pay better than the massive feature films, however. "Novocain," for example, is being made by an independent with a small budget.

Consequently, Fisher made only $1000 and the Carsons made under $2000.

"I told the scout, I don't care about the money, as long as I can get Steve Martin to sign my banjos," said Fisher. He got his wish.

"The village makes it easy for production companies," said Carrol Hutchins, whose house at 259 Home, the site of both the documentary and Service Merchandise commercial last month. Her house has been used for about ten commercials in the last Ten years. "In Riverside there's a 10 day wait on permits. In Oak Park you can get a permit today to shoot tomorrow."

Film crews wishing to shoot in Oak Park are required to obtain a film permit. "It's based on an obstruction permit," explained Suzanne Vestuto of the village Community Relations department, who is the village's point person for movie permits. The fee varies depending on how much property the trucks, equipment and crews take up. "The fee is $5 for every 25 feet of obstruction," she explained.

Production companies are also required to inform all the neighbors on the block that a film shoot will be taking place, and buy insurance policies naming the village additionally insured.

"I wouldn't say we're easy," said Vestuto. "We don't allow filming after 11 o'clock at night." The Carons say film crews like that rule. It gets them off work -- and, perhaps, into area bars -- at a reasonable hour.

She says the village encourages filmmakers to consider the town. The village keeps its own file of photos of potential locations. So does the state film office, which occasionally tosses referrals to Oak Park.

The makings of a good movie house Filmmakers usually prefer big houses with hardwood floors (they reflect light better than carpet and are more convenient for equipment setups), Hrutchetsky says, but almost any kind of house can be used for filming, depending on the needs of the scene.

"I've had assignments for everything from opulent French country mansions to unrehabbed real people kitchens with 1957 tile still on the floor," she said.

Outdated decor and small rooms are actually getting more popular, she said. While filmmakers generally require a lot of space to set up all the lighting equipment and give the actors room to move, the "real life" look is in, and hand-held cameras and lower scale tech setups require less space. Now that heroin chic and thrift store clothes are high fashion, commercials are often looking for tiny rooms to stuff several actors. Tacky decor is also used more than it used to be. At times, Hrutchetsky says, she's filed photos of houses she never thought would get used, and they've popped up in multiple shoots.

While Hutchins house isn't used as much as some of the most popular houses in town (some houses get as many as 8 shoots in a year), filmmakers like it. Hutchins, a professional mediator by trade, happens to be producing a segment of the WTTW documentary (its working title is "The History and Future of Marriage, Family and Children"). The crew chose her house in large measure because they were able to use it for free.

Hutchins said commercial directors like the house because it has light-colored walls, a lot of windows and plenty of light.

"Victorian houses are good because they're so well structured-a rounded archway goes a long way in this business," said Peter Donoghue, the documentary's gaffer (the top light technician behind the cinematographer). "This house has a lot of what I call 'breakups'-a lot of windows and doors, a lot of possibilities for light and shadow, half walls, doorways, separate rooms, possibilities to hide lights."

It doesn't hurt that the homeowners are laid back. "We're told frequently we're real easy people to work with," said Hutchins.

"If there's a knick in the wall, I don't go crazy. It's just a house."

When knicks happen, feature film crews usually repair the damage. In fact, the "Novocain" crews fixed Fisher's closet and patched cracks in his plaster before the shoot started. Still, having 50 crew members tracking mud through the house is not every homeowners idea of fun. Hutchins' neighbors are not envious, she says.

"I think most of them think we're crazy," she said.
 

They choose Berwyn because it has a nice old fashioned courtroom. Anyway Steve Martin was there, but no Helena Bonham Carter. He did have his co-star whom you failed to mention in your last report, Kevin Bacon. The scene consisted of the both of them escaping from the courtroom during a trial and running out of the building. This scene was shot quite a number of times from various angles. Martin and Bacon must have run a few miles before the shoot was over. As for the film, people involved said the film was a dark comedy, kinda like "Fargo". The plot you described was correct."

Mel Gibson and the crew of Paramount's coming romantic comedy "What Women Want" were thrilled one night when Steve Martin stopped by the set with his own costars, Helena Bonham Carter and Laura Dern. They are making "Novocaine" in the Windy City.

As Gibson sprinted down a tree-lined Chicago street, followed by a Steadicam operator in a golf cart, the big star was surprised to find Martin trotting alongside him. Both men, without coaching, stopped on their marks and looked quizzically at the camera.

The screenplay for "What Women Want" was co-written by Nancy Meyers, who is also the film's producer and director. It's about an ad exec with the ability to read women's minds. Helen Hunt co-stars with Gibson.
 

Danny Glover has new competition when it comes to running with his "Lethal Weapon" partner Mel Gibson: Steve Martin. PEOPLE reports that the white-haired comedian and writer was in Chicago making his new movie "Novocaine" at the same time mighty Mel was in the Windy City making "What Women Want," directed by Nancy Myers. Myers, says PEOPLE, happens to be a pal of Martin's, having written his "Father of the Bride" movies. So the two schemed to put Martin in a scene in which Mel runs down the street and stops to look into costar Helen Hunt's apartment. With the scene in the can, the rushes went back to the studio in Hollywood -- where nobody seemed to notice that, out of nowhere, Steve Martin suddenly appeared in the scene. Finally, six weeks later, one exec piped up how funny it was to have Martin running with Gibson. That was the last laugh, however: The scene's been cut from the picture.

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