STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Eileen Shields couldn’t help but notice the people two decades older than she pushing her aside as they ran up Bald Mountain.
As she thought about people like Charley French, who at 91 is still competing on Nordic skis and bike, the seed of an idea began to germinate.
What if there was something sinister about these people who seem to have found the fountain of youth, she thought to herself.
The result is “The Amaranth,” a feature-length mystery drama shot almost entirely on location in the Wood River Valley.
Shields and Director Albert Chi showed a sneak peak of the film, which is still being tweaked, to close out the 7th annual Sun Valley Film Festival Sunday evening.
The crowd filling the Sun Valley Opera House laughed as they saw Hailey’s Marketron turned into a medical clinic and the Valley Club and golf course turned into an exclusive retirement community. And they applauded whenever familiar faces, such as Danielle Kennedy, Mike Murphy, Patsy Wygle, Bill Nagel, Karen Nelsen, Jana Arnold, Tewa Evans, Tyia Wilson and Chantal Westerman.
The Lettermen’s “Theme from a Summer Place” filled the opera house as scenes of an idyllic Shangri-Las full of happy golfers and social schmoozers filled the screen.
Theirs was a community named Amaranth after a mythological flower that doesn’t fade.
But the newest resident of this community, played by Melora Walters of “Dead Poets Society,” Magnolia” and “Big Love” fame, notices that something doesn’t add up.
Her husband, who was a step away from death’s door upon arrival, suddenly has new life—a rather reckless life.
There’s something a little off about Dr. Campbell, the “everything surgeon” who even does vaginal rejuvenations. And why do the foreign waiters and hospital workers seem to disappear?
Shields, a freelance writer who has published essays in such publications as the “Los Angeles Review,” tapped Chi, who is married to Shields’ niece, to direct the movie.
Chi has had small parts in such movies as “50 First Dates” and he’s worked on such movies as “There Will Be Blood” and “The Longest Yard.”
While Shields researched organ harvesting, Chi visited with clients at the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in Twin Falls to learn about their efforts to provide a better life for their families in an attempt to add authenticity to the film.
And, with the help of casting directors in New York, they lined up a number of familiar actors, including Susan Sullivan, known for her roles as Lenore Curtin Delaney on the soap opera “Another World,” Maggie Gioberti Channing on “Falcon Crest” and Kitty Montgomery on “Dharma and Greg.
Also, Jeffrey DeMunn, who has had roles in such movies as “The Blob,” “Citizen X,” “The Green Mile” and “The Walking Dead,” and Harley Jane Kozak, “who has appeared in “The House on Sorority Row,” the soap opera “Santa Barbara,” “Clean and Sober,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Parenthood” and “Arachnophobia.”
Among those contributing to the production were Judith McQueen, who provided catering; Sue Bridgman, who furnished floral decorations; Gather Yoga Studio, Davis Embroidery and The Attic Thrift Store.
Lynn Mason-Pattnosh, who cast such Emmy award-winning projects as “Arrested Development," was the local casting director. While Madison Stevens pointed the casting of background actors--all Sun Valley locals, of course.
Shields and her husband have had a home in Sun Valley for 20 years. But, still, she was amazed at the local talent.
“And we had some great people,” she added. “We didn’t even have to direct them!”
Evans, who played one of the wealthy residents of the Amaranth retirement community, gave much of the credit to the “genius director.”
“Albert pulled out the best in you. He’d whisper in my ear, suggesting a few things to do, and they worked like magic,” she said. “I feel really enriched being part of the production.”
Shields said she hopes the film will start conversations about such topics as how far people with money will go to live longer and what that could mean for the world.
The film has a few tweaks to go before a hoped-for premiere in Los Angeles, she added.
“This is very, very close to where we want it, but there are always tiny places you can tweak to make it better”