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| Blue Mountain teen Layne Greene is hoping Pictou County will band together to get a film he's in brought to the local theatre. Greene, 17, had one of the 10 lead roles in the movie Summerhood, which was filmed in Lunenburg more than four years ago. Jennifer Vardy Little - The News |
BLUE MOUNTAIN - Tripping while walking into an audition more than four years ago was probably the luckiest thing Layne Greene has ever done.
It caught the eye of Jason Medjuck, who wrote, directed and starred in Summerhood. More than 5,000 kids had auditioned for roles in the movie, but it was that simple trip that made Greene, now 17, stand out from the crowd.
"He was looking for someone who was kind of clumsy, and knew I was that kid," Greene said. "I'd probably be in the background if not for that trip."
It started the Blue Mountain teen on quite an adventure. Just 13 years old at the time the movie was shot, he played the character Flyball, one of the principle roles.
"We went canoe jousting the first day of filming," he recalled. "It was the middle of the fall and we showed up at the camp, they threw us a bunch of life jackets and told us to head out in the canoes."
Filmed at a camp in Lunenburg, the movie tells the tale of Medjuck's own summer camp experiences back in the 1980s - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
"It accurately portrays what happens at summer camp, that's for sure," said Greene.
The movie tells the story of 10 campers thrown together in one cabin. Lead character Fetus - played by New Yorker Lucian Maisel, who most recently played Robert DeNiro's grandson in Everybody's Fine - wants to get a girl, and they all want to make it across the bridge to get to the camp where the older kids are staying.
But the lead characters begin to dislike Fetus, and suddenly, all of the campers are in the cabin, dubbed the "monkey bin," doing mean things to other people and sometimes each other.
"I only went to camp once and I hated it," he admitted with a chuckle. "So my summer camp experience is nothing like the cacophony going on here."
Set in the 1980s, the film has a killer soundtrack featuring many of the big names of the time, and the film is narrated by John Cusack.
Greene was just 13 years old when the film was shot, but never dreamed that it would be more than four years until the film made it to theatres.
"It was at the Atlantic Film Festival two years ago, and we all went up - 10 or 15 of us," he said. "It's really good, Jacob did a really good job with it."
Now, Greene and his supporters are trying to get the film brought to theatres here in New Glasgow. People can visit the film's website - www.summerhood.com - where they'll find a "demand it" button. Just by clicking that button and answering a few simple questions, people can vote for it to come to this region.
Across the globe, Summerhood has just 275 demand it votes - and 215 of them are from New Glasgow.
"We've seen how much Pictou County has rallied behind others - we're hoping they'll do the same here," Greene said. "We want to see the movie. I've got it on good authority that the movie could, potentially, come here first if these demands keep coming."
