Since the late 1970s, horror master Stephen King has encouraged aspiring filmmakers with something he calls Dollar Babies.
King explains on his website: “These stories are not under contract for movies, which means they are available for film students who want to try their hands at a Stephen King story. If you want to be one of my dollar babies, send us your info.” He temporarily grants the rights to adapt those short stories for independent films for just $1.
“Frank Darabont, the director of ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘The Green Mile’ (both written by King), practically got his start in the film industry by producing one of these (Dollar Baby) movies while still in college,” said Norristown resident Joseph Horning, the screenwriter and director of “One for the Road,” a story from King’s 1978 volume, “Night Shift.”
It’s a sequel to King’s vampire saga, “Salem’s Lot” (which was adapted for a 1979 mini-series starring pop singer and “Starsky & Hutch” actor David Soul). In “One for the Road” the Lumley family are on their way to Maine to visit relatives. However a wrong turn on a snowy night leaves them stranded on the outskirts of the abandoned town of Jerusalem’s Lot, where a vampire infestation wreaked havoc years earlier. Leaving his wife and daughter behind with the car, Gerard Lumley trudges through six miles of snow to find help from two unlikely heroes in a bar. Unaware of the danger he’s left his wife and daughter in, he discovers that something is stalking him.
Horning and his CKC Quarterly Productions business partner, former Exton resident turned L.A. producer/director/actor Curtis K. Case, recently wrapped up shooting for the film. They used locations across the area, and they just so happened to be snow covered, like in King’s story.
“We were shooting in that (January) snowstorm when it was 9 degrees. We were all huddled up. Your hands don’t wanna work like they should,” Horning said, while on location near a closed bridge over the Perkiomen Creek in Upper Hanover Township. “I’ve gotta give credit to the actors who are out there in their regular clothes (in costume).”
“There’s a lot of group hugging,” quipped one of the cast members, while inside the production RV for “One for the Road.”
Besides the area surrounding the Water Street bridge in Upper Hanover, Horning revealed a few other local locations that will appear in the forthcoming “One for the Road.” “My friend, Sisa Vanelli, has been gracious enough to let us shoot the exterior of her home in Douglassville. And Mark Johnson, the owner of Boyer’s Shurefine Market (in Fleetwood), has agreed to let us film interior and exterior scenes at his establishment free of charge. We’ll also be filming in Alburtis at the Inn at Maple Grove, an old colonial tavern with a rich history,” he said, also praising co-producer Chris Wagler for securing locations around the region.
Case said that their sets and production operations attracted a fair share of curious onlookers. When a couple of extras entered the East Greenville Walmart still wearing bloody makeup, concerns were raised that they were injured.
A few of the more generous crowdfunding backers of “One for the Road” will appear in the movie as some of the Jerusalem’s Lot vampires.
“Anything Joe writes, he stays close to the story,” said Case, addressing any possible fears of Stephen King fans who have been disappointed by past movie adaptations of his books. “It looks really great. You can definitely feel the whole Stephen King vibe. We hope Mr. King will be pleased.”
Case and Horning said that King must approve the finished film before it can make its way to the film festival circuit. They advised keeping track of what happens next at www.facebook.com/ckcqtrproductions.