BYU graduates are uniting to produce 'Charly,' a new independent film based on the novel by Jack Weyland.
'I remember reading 'Charly' in ninth grade, my friends and I loved Jack Weyland's books when we were little,' said Sanae Warner a 21-year-old history teaching major from Yokohama, Japan, 'It'd be awesome to see it as a movie.'
'The story takes place in the context of an LDS person's life,' said Micah Merrill, BYU film and screenwriting graduate, and Charly producer. 'But primarily it's a love story, a romantic comedy, with drama.'
Merrill explained that the script has variations from the book, in order to enhance the story for a broader audience.
'We've changed it a lot from the book and Jack Weyland has approved our script,' Merrill said. 'We've always made it a policy, even though it's not in our contract, to check any major draft back with Jack.'
Finding the right cast to fulfill the film's vision is proving a hard task for the Charly production team.
'We've had at least one hundred people audition over a two-and-a-half week period,' said Charly director Adam Anderegg, 1995 BYU film graduate. 'This is the hardest process because it's the biggest part of the director's job to get the right people.'
BYU music dance theater senior, Jason Celaya, 25, from San Meteo, California, spent over seven hours in the offices of FMG productions in Salt Lake, auditioning for a role in Charly.
Celaya made it through numerous cuts, and was in a group of only a few other males being auditioned for the lead role of Sam. He explained how the music dance theater program has prepared him for the experience.
'We're prepared to audition, not only for film, but for also for theater and dance and anything vocal.' Celaya said. 'I don't think I would be auditioning if I didn't love the script and the message it's conveying.'
Though being a movie star often brings to mind fame and fortune, Tip Boxell, BYU theater and film M.A., and Charly producer, explained that due to their limited production budget the actors' salary had not yet been determined.
'This is a low-budget, independent feature film, we have enough money for all the technical aspects, but we've already promised our investors that they will get paid first,' Boxell said.
Boxell said they have earmarked a portion of the profits for the actors. Over the next four years the actors could do very well, even better than if they had a fixed salary.
'But there's got to be that profit - so the actors are taking a risk, they're taking a risk to star,' he said.
Boxell explained that the auditioning process was a combination of pain and joy.
'When an audition starts a hundred people come, and they are beautiful people. They are gifted and talented, and it is so much fun to have them come and give you everything they've got,' said Boxell.
'They compete and they compete until it gets whittled down to a few, but there can be only one. We're telling wonderful people that we love, that they didn't make it, and that's the painful part. That's the despicable part.'
BYU music dance theater graduate, Joy Gardner, 22 from Gainsville, Florida, was one of the few called back for Charly auditions. She, however, is no rookie to the auditioning process. Gardner stared as Laneah in the Legacy Theater film, The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepard.
'Being a part of The Testaments was a real gift for me. I felt very much at peace during the auditioning process and was very much guided by the spirit as to the things I should say and do.' Gardner said.
'It was a project where you knew that it was in Heavenly Father's hands who they cast, and all you could do was do your best.'
Gardner approached her auditions for Charly with the same dedicated attitude.
'It's a wonderful and beautiful script and I'm very happy to have made it this far.' she said.
During the casting process the directors and producers tried diligently to find the lead actors, 'Charly' and 'Sam.'
'If we don't find the right people here, we won't shoot the movie, we'll keep searching until we find them,' director Anderegg said. 'The actors are so important that it'd be a waste of money to film it with the wrong people.'
Filming is tentatively planned for 22 days at the end of August. The film is scheduled to be released Spring 2002.