Here are a few little factoids about my film Foreign Correspondents that you may find interesting.
- Andy Tennant, who recently directed ForCor star Melanie Lynskey in Ever After, was also one of the main directors of ForCor star Corin Nemec's old TV series Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
- Corin's real name is Joseph Charles Nemec IV. His father, Joseph Charles Nemec III, is a Hollywood production designer whose credits include Terminator 2, Patriot Games, Twister, and The Saint.
- There were no less than six on-set romances amongst ForCor cast and crew during our 18 days of filming. None of them involved the writer/director.
- Our transportation coordinator Dennis Tracy works as Patrick Stewart's stand-in on Star Trek: The Next Generation and all related films. Related: my current Paramount coworker Guy Vardaman used to be ForCor star Wil Wheaton's stand-in on TNG.
- The apartment in which Melanie Lynskey's character Melody lives is based on my old apartment, and although the apartment interior itself was a set on a soundstage, we shot a lot of the first story in and around that very building. We needed a shot of Mel opening the door to the apartment, so we asked the current tenant if it was okay. He absolutely agreed - because he turned out to be a friend of Wil Wheaton!
- I slept within two miles of the various sets - both in Southern and Northern California - during 11 of our 18 shooting days. I walked to the set at least 4 times. And for 4 days straight, the crew woke me up at my father's home to shoot there - my commute was about 10 feet!
- Douglas Coler and Blaire Baron, who play husband and wife in the film, discovered during rehearsal that they had once worked together at a theatre in LA a decade earlier, and shared many of the same friends.
- Corin Nemec needed a voice coach to help him practice his British accent, and so he used Lawrence Kane - our original assistant director for the film, who left the production just days before filming because he got a higher-paying job offer (which didn't come through in the end - too bad, Lawrence!).
- Of all the cast and crew who worked on ForCor, only two had full-time, permanent day jobs that they had to take time off from in order to do the film: actress Alice Cunningham and me, Mark Tapio Kines, the writer/director.