BY KAREN BOSSICK

The cast had to endure mosquitoes and black flies chewing through their skin and clothes. And they weren’t able to lock down one of the leads until two days before filing began.

But on Thursday Joseph Itaya will proudly screen his dream—a dream that has been 10 years in the making—at the Sun Valley Film Festival. 

“Lost & Found,” which came together with help from Sun Valley friends, will be shown at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 3, at the Magic Lantern Cinemas.

And Itaya will discuss filmmaking and virtual reality in a free presentation titled “Directing Cinema Through Music,” at 10:30 a.m. Friday, March 4, at Ketchum’s Community Library. The program was organized by Sun Valley Opera and its co-founder Frank Meyer, who threw a fundraising party for Itaya in Seattle.

The 90-minute film was a 2013 finalist for Best Dramatic Screenplay at the International Family Film Festival. And it’s a flashback to the days of The Hardy Boys,” one of those rare indies that youngsters can watch alongside their parents.

The film revolves around two brothers who are sent to their estranged uncle—a bait shop owner who lives on a creepy island where family secrets have long been buried. They soon discover that their eccentric grandfather—a codebreaker--vanished without a trace decades earlier, taking with him the secret to a vast fortune.

The boys find clues to a complex treasure hunt—a hunt that could lead to unimaginable wealth and heal their broken family if they can find it in time. In the process, they learn that the bonds of brotherhood are the most valuable riches of all.

After all, the greatest treasure lies within.

The film features Justin Kelly from “DeGrassi: The Next Generation,” Benjamin Stockham from NBC’s “About a Boy,” Cary Elwes of “The Princess Bride” and Jason Patric of “The Lost Boys” and “Speed 2” fame.

Itaya asked Annie Bosko, a rising Nashville star who lives in Sun Valley, to write the title song after he met her at a party honoring Clint Eastwood at last year’s Sun Valley Film Festival. The movie also features a high-caliber sound track engineered by British film composer Tom Howe, resulting in a high quality movie that does not depend on violence and special effects to entertain, said Frank Meyer.

 “I grew up on Whidbey Island where there wasn’t much TV, no computers and no radio. So, every day my brother and I used to take off into the woods where we chased raccoons, built forts, shot BB guns and got into situations that were sometimes a little bit scary,” said Itaya, who is spearheading a new virtual reality company in Santa Monica that is working with such companies as Mattel and The Annenberg Foundation.

“Today’s kids are so plugged into computers, TV and Nintendos. I thought: What would happen if two kids were dropped off in a wilderness where there was no technology, where they could have an adventure, a mystery to solve.”

The movie is layered with real-life lessons, added Itaya: “They’re the reason I dreamed of this movie and fought for it. The themes of this story resonate in everything I do.”

Itaya worked professionally as an actor and musician in the Seattle area, winning multiple awards as a child pianist, composer and conductor nationwide and abroad in Europe and Asia. Since graduating with an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California, he has produced more than 30 commercials and industrial films which have aired nationally and internationally.

He produced a 15-minute short “Even Money” about two brothers scrambling to buy time and answers for one’s gambling and a 5-minute “Silent Night” about a crime that goes unreported in most instances while working on “Lost & Found.”

He wrote the screenplay for “Lost & Found” 10 years ago. But making it depended on the help of people like Sun Valley’s Kim Selby, a 1991 Junior National Champion ice skater-turned actress and producer who has been involved with such films as “Erased,” “Cartel War,” “Hysteria,” which starred Maggie Gyllenhaal, and “The Game Plan” with The Rock.

 “The movie was an incredible journey of love and determination,” he said. I almost made it a few times but it fell apart every time. To make a film you need money and producers and 10,000 things have to come together exactly right. Two days before the film I didn’t have enough money and Kim Selby emptied her personal bank account and Scott Bridges called his family to make a big investment.”

“Lost & Found” features gorgeous shots of the Washington State coast. But most of the film was shot in Ontario, Canada, in June when mosquitoes were so thick that everyone had to cloak themselves in mosquito netting when they weren’t on camera.

The costs of filming in Washington were prohibitive given the unions, Itaya said. Canada, by contrast, offered both a tax rebate and a filmmaker’s grant.

Lake Superior was frozen solid and the snow 10 feet deep when Itaya began preparing to film. It thawed “barely in time.” And Itaya signed Carey Elwes with only two days to go, rushing him onto a plane from L.A. to Canada.

 “If we hadn’t, the whole movie would have cracked like the Titanic hitting an iceberg,” Itaya said.

Itaya premiered the film last week at the Sedona International Film Festival.

“It was the biggest dream of my entire life to make this film. I worked 10 years to get it done, teaching music to support myself, running a small production company.  Now, we’ve designed a plan to sell DVDs and put it on TV to repay our producers. I’m just hoping and dreaming that lots of people will love it as much as I love it.”

Itaya is ecstatic about showing it at the Sun Valley Film Festival.

“I love Sun Valley. I love the people. I love the scenery. I love the energy. I love the purity,” he said. “I’ve been visiting Sun Valley for many years and it feels like home away from home. A lot of people come from L.A. and San Francisco to vacation in Sun Valley, and like the characters in our film they’re going from city to country. In fact, I hope to shoot my next film in Sun Valley.”