John Philbrick costars with Gale in Wake, the independant project that was filmed this past summer in Bath, Maine. John was kind enough to share with us not only the basic plot summary, but some of his thoughts on the experience.

John plays Jack, one of four brothers in a VERY dysfunctional family. The brothers reunite at their boyhood home to celebrate their dead father's birthday. One brother (Ray) has broken out of prison to attend -- Jack has helped him and is plotting another robbery to finance film careers for them and the two strippers he shows up with. Gale's character, the youngest brother Kyle, is a mechanic who has spent time in a mental hospital and is trying to stay off the bottle. The fourth brother, Sebastian, has never left the family home. He takes care of their invalid, alcoholic mother and is trying to write a book while scheming with Kyle to kill the mother for the father's insurance money. Confused yet? :-)
(ed...This description has *definitely* got me excited about the film!)

John says the film was one of those magical experiences that happen every once in a great while. All of the people connected with it, cast and crew, turned out to be just the right mix of talents and personalities and the end product was far better than anyone anticipated. The film has been accepted to the Hollywood Film Festival and will be screened the first weekend in October, 2002.

Los Angeles filmmakers find ideal spot in Bath

In the two-hour movie, four brothers return home, which the oldest brother, Sebastian, played by Dihlon McManne, has never left. The brothers drink and get into trouble. The film begins with McManne typing a novel, and also ends that way, with the character as an older man played by Martin Landau. Roy Finch described parts of the film, primarily a drama, as "outlandish comedy." "It was a real thrill to have Martin Landau playing me as an old man," said McManne, a theater actor whose film credits include "Final Analysis" with Richard Gere and "So I Married an Axe Murderer," with Mike Myers. "We sat together so he could duplicate my cadence, the way I spoke." The film takes place during one night, in which McManne is arrested. "I've been tied up, had an arrow stuck in my forehead. I've been beaten up, abused, handcuffed and tied at the ankles with a belt," McManne said. Actors and crew were drawn from Los Angeles, New York, Boston and northern New England. Other actors in the movie were Gale Harold, star of the Showtime series "Queer as Folk," Blake Gibbons [currently appearing as 'Coleman' in ABC's General Hospital], John Philbrick, comedian Bob Marley, Rainer Judd and Amanda Painter. Filming in a North Bath neighborhood, and trying to be unobtrusive, could be a challenge, Roy Finch said. A member of the film crew even volunteered to mow a woman's lawn later in the day so she would turn off her mower, the sound of which was ruining a shot. Filmmakers used each room of the house, as well as locations at Finch's mother's home on Front Street, with dolly tracks set up on the floor to move cameras back and forth. Finch tried a technique he called diorama scenes, which are flashbacks within the same setting fed by dialog. Different rooms in the house were used for the memory sequences.
JONATHAN_WHITE@TimesRecord.Com