Local filmmaking updates: 'A Fonder Heart' gets postponed (again), 'Loren Cass' gets a distribution deal

One movie is two years past its first film festival and just now getting a shot at theatrical and home video exposure.

The other movie was supposed to begin production this week but won't.

Just proves how slowly the wheels of indie filmmaking can turn, especially in an off-the-grid "Hollywood" like Tampa Bay.

First, the good news: St. Petersburg native Chris Fuller's abstract, disturbing debut Loren Cass has been signed to a distribution deal by Kino International.

You may recall my 2007 profile of Fuller and his film, marking its acceptance in the CineVegas Film Festival, where it competed in the category "best film not showing in a theater near you." Loren Cass lost the prize but won friends on the indie circuit. Later, Fuller's movie was nominated for the best undistributed film award at the IFP Gotham Awards and screened at several festivals before Kino stepped up.

Now Loren Cass will have its theatrical premiere July 24 at New York's Cinema Village then expand to other markets -- possibly including a Tampa Bay engagement -- before its DVD release by the end of 2009. Check out the clip posted above

Loren Cass is a jagged tale set in St. Petersburg after the 1996 racial disturbances sparked by the shooting of an African-American man by a white police officer. The movie is a series of tentatively linked impressions, mostly young adults aimlessly coping (or tragically not coping) with tensions on the streets. It's a tough watch for anyone unaccustomed to Jean-Luc Godard's brain-twisters and Francois Truffaut's unsentimental nostalgia.

Kino's news release praises Fuller's work for "going against the Hollywood trend of depicting young Americans in narratives of self-discovery. The marginalized characters in Loren Cass exist in direct relation to the larger sociocultural contexts of racial relations, adolescent suicide and gang violence in suburban America."

Meanwhile, the unit production manager for Jim Fitzpatrick's A Fonder Heart told me that the startup date for production is delayed at least a week until July 22. (It was previously announced to begin shooting in Pinellas County today.) Mike Sullivan said getting all of the necessary contracts signed is causing the delay.

"We have to dot all the 'i's' and cross the 't's'," Sullivan said Tuesday. "It actually helps me to get ready for all the things I need to do."

A Fonder Heart is expected to star Burt Reynolds although, as reported here last week, he hasn't officially signed on. Fitzpatrick is expected to direct the film from his script, based on a childhood classmate dying of bone cancer who befriended an elderly patient, who Reynolds is pegged to play. Representatives for co-stars Daryl Hannah and Oscar winner Lou Gossett Jr. previously confirmed their clients' involvement.

Will it really happen? Stay tuned.